


Cardcaptor Shouto

by Blossom_forever



Category: Cardcaptor Sakura, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Cardcaptor Sakura AU, I’ll add more tags later, M/M, Not Beta Read, On Hiatus, Pining Midoriya Izuku, Pining Todoroki Shouto, Slow Updates, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor Being An Asshole, Todoroki Enji | Endeavor's Bad Parenting, Todoroki Shouto is Bad at Feelings, Todoroki doesn’t want to be the Cardcaptor but oh well
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:21:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 24,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25890523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blossom_forever/pseuds/Blossom_forever
Summary: “ The fake book started to glow from its spot on the floor and he stopped his movements, staring at the light with a growing concern.A small yellow bear started morphing from out of the book, wings and a tail attached to its backside. It’s beady eyes opened and a wide grin spread on its face. “Hey! Thanks for waking me up! I’m Kero!” “Todoroki finds an odd book in his house and ends up being roped into being the Card Captor because of the danger the cards within hold against the people in Japan. Can he capture the all?
Relationships: Aoyama Yuuga & Todoroki Shouto, Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Midoriya Izuku & Todoroki Shouto, Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Todoroki Shouto & Kero
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41





	1. Just let me sleep

**Author's Note:**

> Hey there! Thanks for clicking on my bnha/cardcaptor fanfic, I hope you enjoy! 
> 
> Sorry in advance for any spelling errors!

Todoroki felt like he swatted the entire wall in his search for the light switch, he finally found it though, flicking it on with a little click.

If there was one man he hated the most, it was his father. The bastard pushed him to his limits during their training session, beating him till he was black and blue, and now he was having him clean the whole house. 

His back gave its complaint as he picked up a pile of books, dropping them on the table, dust flying out from underneath.

He stepped back and scanned the room, shelves lined the walls and there looked to be endless rows in between. Maybe he could get away with doing a quick dusting over all the books, his body certainly voted for the easier option.

He grabbed the old feather duster and knocked it outside a few times till he was satisfied it was somewhat clean. The feathers gently brushed against the spines on the books as he waltzed down the aisles, running through all the new English words his father pushed on him to remember.

Second place was no good for Todoroki Enji, so he did absolutely everything he could to make sure his son would take the first spot. Tutors, books, and his fathers constant yelling were all he’d known for most of his life. It’s why he wasn’t a big fan of their small library, tucked away in the back of the house. All the blocks of paper reminded him of the days spending countless hours looking over numbers, letters and words till his brain short circuits.

When he moves out, the only books he’ll have are the story kind. No encyclopedias or history books, just a pile of papers that can transport him into another world with its words.

Tododroki continued dusting the books till he saw something moving in the corner of his eye. When he turned to see what it was he found that it indeed was his worst nightmare. A spider.

Those creatures are terrifying, so you can’t hold it against him for letting out a short screech and jumping backwards, away from the beast. Unfortunately this action caused him to slam into the bookshelf, the entire row shaking before books came hailing down on him.

He hit the ground with a moan, his body begging for him to just stop. He picked himself up, pushing the pain to the side, his father was going to do much worse to him if he saw this mess.

Todoroki scrambled to shove the books back onto the shelves, he could properly arrange them after he cleared the obvious mess away.

As he was shoving the paper blocks back onto their shelves, one book in particular caught his eye. It was a little ragged with age, but it didn’t diminish it’s beautiful cover. The book was a crimson red with gold trims around its edges, it had displayed a drawing of a sun in front of a lion donned with wings proudly on the cover’s front.

He found himself reaching for the book, carefully undoing the clasp. It opened smoothly, the old book held together quite nicely, but it turned out to be hollow inside. Sitting inside the fake book was a stack of cards.

Todoroki picked up one of the red and golden cards, turning it over in his hand, it didn’t match up with any playing cards that he had even seen, so perhaps it was a tarot card.

The card had a drawing of a woman whose hair crossed in front of her, wings wrapped around her like some sort of chrysalis.

At the bottom of the card was writing, showing the name of the card to the reader. “The Windy.” He read off, brows furrowing as he tried to figure out what it meant. “Windy?”

Before he had a chance to think, a large gust of wind blew through the room, forcing him to hunker down as the books once again came flying off the shelves. Todoroki tried to press the book into his chest to hold the cards within their case, but they all shot out, flying in the wind.

The edge of a book nailed him right in the side of the head and he was sent crashing to the floor. At least the spider wasn’t here anymore.

“Goddamn it.” Todoroki hissed under his breath, pulling himself to his knees and staring at the red and gold book in front of him, laying innocently on the floor.

He had one hell of a mess to clean up before his father got home, so he got started in throwing the books back onto the shelves.

The fake book started to glow from its spot on the floor and he stopped his movements, staring at the light with a growing concern.

A small yellow bear started morphing from out of the book, wings and a tail attached to its backside. It’s beady eyes opened and a wide grin spread on its face. “Hey! Thanks for waking me up! I’m Ke-“

Todoroki snatched the flying plush and shoved it into the book, locking the clasp, tossing it onto the shelf and backing away.

No. There was no way he was dealing with this today. One mess was enough, he didn’t have time to deal with hallucinations or whatever the hell that was, his father would be home soon.

He fished the rest of the books from the floor as muffled screaming and banging came from inside that special one. 

After he was finished Todoroki navigated his way out of the maze of books and to the library door, turning the light off with a click.

What the actual fuck.

* * *

Todoroki laid awake in bed, tossing and turning, unable to pry his thoughts away from that goddamn book and creature. Did his father actually hit him that hard or was what he saw with his own eyes today real?

No, it couldn’t have been. He was just sore and exhausted from ‘training’, that’s all, nothing was truly there. Nothing could ever be special about those hell sent books in that library.

It was just his mind playing like a child, dreaming of a childhood that could never be, one filled with imaginary friends and creatures, all beckoning and welcoming him to their world.

It wasn’t real, you idiot, so just sleep already.

But no matter how long he laid in that futon of his, the intrusive thoughts never vanished, instead they only seemed to come at him harder.

His mind whirled and grasped for the tiniest theory, for some sort of explanation that would gently brush against his hopes. He had to stop this, he had to prove to himself that he had grown up now and didn’t have any time to chase after foolish fantasies.

Todoroki irritatedly tossed the cover off his body and dragged his weary bones across the room, the pain begging him not to move, but what good would laying down do. It would only drive him to insanity.

The halls were empty and cold this time of night, everyone had retreated back into their own rooms, resting peacefully. He envied them. Instead here he was trying to sneak across the whole house, triple checking every board he stepped on, just so he could get a look at a stupid book.

He rounded the last corner and tip-toed his way to the wooden doors, giving the blockade a push that forced it open with a creak. Todoroki carefully slipped into the room, letting the door fall closed behind him.

Just like his previous struggle earlier in the day it took him a few minutes of endless patting before he found the light switch in the pitch black room.

The lights flickered on and gave out a low hum as Todoroki started down the isles, finger tracing along the spines of the book. He navigated his way back to where he had created the torturous mess, finding the books that were all laid in the wrong position.

He scanned the bookshelf for the red and golden, paying close attention to the writing on each book’s spine. Finally he stopped on the object causing his current lack of sleep. He pulled the book titled ‘The Clow’ out from its spot on the shelf, flipping it over in his hand.

It looked like any old book, not magical or unique in any way. He could finally let himself start to relax, maybe when he opened it it would be just like any old boring book. He undid the clasp and slowly pulled the book open, peering inside and seeing something yellow before he felt himself getting smacked in the face.

Tododroki’s head fell back and he let the book drop to the floor with a thud, choosing to clutch his aching nose instead. “What the fuck-“ he started to hiss, but his gaze fell upon the yellow stuffed animal flying infront of him, visibly pissed off.

“Just who do you think you are!” The small bear(?) yelled, getting right up in his face. “How dare you handle me, Kero, guardian beast of the seal, like some sort of rag doll!”

The bi haired boy backed up, eyes wide and mouth agape. “Y-you-“ He choked on his words. This wasn’t real, there was no way this was possibly happening.

The stuffed animal let out a huff before taking a deep breath, body falling out of its fighting stance. “Let’s start over, okay?” They proudly puffed out their chest with a smug expression stretched on their face. “The name is Kero, I’m the guardian of the book you awakened me from!”

“Todoroki Shouto.” He said slowly, as if waiting for the _thing_ to pounce. “You’re...real?”

Kero grinned, resting his paws on his hips. “Obviously. I’m as real as you- HEY!”

Todoroki grabbed the stuffed bear and pulled at its cheeks, flipping it around and trying to determine what the heck he was made of. “Well, your wings are-“ He got cut off as Kero smacked his hand away.

“Stop grabbing me like that, kid!” The bear scolded, huffing while he floated away from the teen. “Pushing your lack of manners to the side-“ Todoroki bristled at that. “-let’s get down to business.” 

“And what might that be?” Todoroki questioned as Kero floated over to the shelf, sitting on the edge of the wooden board.

The bear crossed its chubby legs over each other and propped his head up with his arm. “You being the new Master of the cards, of course, dummy.” The bear motioned to the book the bi haired boy dropped to the floor, it gave off a yellow hue and floated up in the air. “You see, you’re now in charge of all the cards within this book, congratulations!” The bear gave a false cheer.

Todoroki swallowed the lump in his throat, “There’s so many problems with that, but first,” Kero raised his eyebrow up at the boy’s words. “All the cards flew out earlier, I couldn’t find them anywhere. Sorry”

Kero’s gave him a soft smile. “Ah, so all the cards are missing, huh?” His eyes crinkled.

The teen started to relax, at least the bizarre bear wasn’t upset with him. “Yeah.” Todoroki said and was met with silence filling the room for a full minute before the bear leapt up.

“What do you mean the cards are missing?! Do you know how bad this is?!” The stuffed plush ranted, gritting his teeth and throwing a fit midair. “Those aren’t just any old cards, they’re _magical_ cards! They’re not meant to be roaming free in the world!”

Kero flew to his side, snatching his sleeve and tried pulling him down the endless isles. Todoroki stumbled, the bear was stronger than he looked, but held his ground. “What are you doing?”

Kero let go so he could scream in the teens face, his face burning red. “You have to go catch the cards! You’re the one who let them out, they’re your responsibility!”

Todoroki’s mouth turned into a frown and he tsked at the bear’s words, taking a defiant step back. “You’re the ‘guardian beast of the seal’, _you_ do it.” The boy turned back around and snatched the book that was still hanging in the air. “I have my own problems to deal with, I don’t have time for your responsibilities to clash with mine. Goodbye.”

He threw the book back in its place on the shelf and shoved his way past the flying plush, figuring his way back out the maze.

Kero flew in front of him, forcing him to stop in his stomping away. “This is your fault, you’re the one who has to clean this mess up!” He made a grab for the boy sleeve again but missed as the teen pulled back. “We have to go _now_!”

“Like hell I have to go anywhere with you.” Todoroki growled, this goddamn creature was getting on his nerves. Real or not, he didn’t have time for this crap. “I have school tomorrow, find someone else.” He tried to press on ahead but the toy wouldn’t budge.

“You don’t understand, you idiot!” The plush looked close to pulling its hair out if it had any. “Only the Card Captor can-“

A screech came from outside the window, making the two jump in fright. It was too loud to be any normal bird and it didn’t sound like it could be a mutation quirk either, so what was it?

“Oh no.” Kero whined, flying over to the windowsill and bouncing around between each foot anxiously. He faced the teen and flapped his arms beside him. “You have to help, _please_ , people are in danger!”

Todoroki was born, trained to be hero. Not just any hero, but the best hero there ever was, one that could surpass All Might. Regardless of his father’s wishes Todoroki liked helping people, he liked being a hero on his own accord. Maybe it was due to his past and relationships with his family that influenced how he desires to help those in need, but that didn’t matter to him too much at the moment. What did was the fact that this bear, whether he knew it or not, was using one of his weaknesses against him. 

Todoroki gritted his teeth as his nails dug into his skin. “Fine,” he hissed out. “I’ll help.”

The plush’s eyes shone and a smile planted itself firmly on his face, he then turned around and quickly pried the window open, sliding it up till it locked with a click. “Alright, lets go!”

Todoroki followed the plush out the window with minimal complaints, the both of them rushing across the backyard and hoping over the fence. 

Kero led him down a series of streets before abruptly stopping, holding his paw out to the side. “It’s here.”

Without time to brace himself, a bird soared down from the air and by the bi haired teen. It wasn’t the size of any normal bird, but around the size of his entire house. He swore under his breath as the gust of wind following the bird blew him and Kero back into the sidewalk stone wall.

His back _burned_ , but he pushed himself up to his feet, looking around for the threat.

The bird flapped its wings, staring down at them like a wolf eyeing its prey. It let out a loud cry before swooping down at the duo once more, it’s beak aimed at them intending to do damage.

“Shit.” Todoroki muttered under his breath, snatching the flying plush hovering by his side and using his ice to jump over the bird closing in on them.

The creature quickly passed underneath them and the boy landed with a grunt. Everything felt like it was on fire, all he wanted was for this night to be over like some sort of bad, cruel dream. He rolled onto his feet and readied his ice, eager to put this irritating bird down for good.

“Wait wait wait!” Kero yelled, flying in front of him and forcing him to stop any preparation of attack. “You can’t kill Fly, you have to capture it!”

Todoroki considered freezing the plush into an ice cube, but held back that plan for later. “How do you suggest I do that?”

Suddenly a warmth emitted from underneath his shirt and he quickly pulled the fabric back to get a look at whatever the hell it was. 

A key laid around his neck on a silver chain, the key was plain except for the head of it that had ice and fire leaking out of a bright yellow star.

Kero flew over to him and visibly grew excited. “When you opened the book you formed a contract, the key is proof of your relationship with the cards!” The bear explained, helping undo the necklace’s clasp. “This will help you capture Clow cards, all you need is to use its incantation to activate its power!”

“What is the incantation?” Todoroki quickly asked as the bird tried taking a chunk out of them, but Todoroki flung them to the side and out of the way.

Kero leapt out of his arms as soon as they were safe. “When you hold the key it should come to you, just let the words flow out of your mouth.”

The boy would have put up more of a fight but he was resigning himself to that perhaps this was a dream and to wake up all he needed to do was not get eaten by the giant bird looking at him like he was a snack.

He clenched the necklace in his hand and tightly shut his eyes, letting the warmth sink into his skin. He could feel a tug in his mind, one that let his mind briefly brush over the words he needed to shout, but they were hazy and hard to understand.

At Kero’s warning he opened his eyes and leapt behind the stone wall, away from the incoming attack.

He quickly fought down the urge to send ice sharps after the beast and closed his eyes once more. The tug on his mind was light and he had to let himself relax to get pulled along. After a few seconds the words formed in his mind, comfortably planting themselves into his brain like they were there all along.

He leapt back over the stone wall and faced the beast that towered over him, soaring high in the air. “Key which hides the power of the dark, reveal your true nature to me.” He opened his fist and the key glowed in his palm, emitting a brighter light than his eyes would have hoped. “I, Todoroki Shouto, command you under our contract, release!”

The key floated above his palm, spinning randomly around as its light enveloped it. With a bright flash a staff fell into his hand, it was a light blue with fire licking up the staff before stopping at the top where it met with a bright yellow star. The same ice and fire display as on the key leaking out from the top.

“I-I…” the teen struggled for the right words, but wow, this was one hell of a dream he would have to tell Fuyumi about.

“Kid!” The plush yelled behind him, causing him to turn around. “No time to stand around in awe, Fly is coming back!”

Just like Kero said, the bird was swooping down once more, it’s wings chopping branches off of trees as it came towards the teen.

Todoroki internally berated himself for getting distracted and felt the light tug in the back of his mind once more, instructing him on what to do.

He switched the staff over to his left hand, swinging his right in front of him, creating a glacier that froze Fly in its spot. He ran up to the chilled bird and held the staff with both hands out before him. 

“Return to your original form,” he yelled, ignoring the ice shard grazing his cheek as Fly began breaking out of his hold. “CLOW CARD!”

The bird started melting into a light blue liquid, flowing over to the head of Todoroki’s staff where it spun in a circle before slowly morphing into one of the red and golden cards. When the card was completed, the whirlwind of air around them stopped and the card fell towards the ground, Todoroki quickly catching it before it could land on the harsh pavement.

Kero flew over to his side, peering at the card over his shoulder. “Nice job, kid! You did better than I expected!” The bear landed on his shoulder and looked proud at the boy’s accomplishment.

Todoroki stared blankly at the card labeled ‘The Fly’ before his legs wobbled beneath him and he collapsed to the floor. His body had been through too much today, it was starting to give out on him and the boy couldn’t blame it, perhaps staying in bed was the choice he should have made earlier.

“Hey!” Kero shouted as he hit the ground, “Are you okay?!” The bear landed next to him on the sidewalk and carefully rested a hand on his arm. 

“I think,” Todoroki started, struggling to get his limbs to obey him. “I think I want to go to bed now.” How funny that was. ‘Go to bed’ like this wasn’t a dream to begin with.

“Oh!” The bear exclaimed. “Of course, I know how we can get there in no time.”

Maybe Kero wasn’t so bad, Todoroki thought as the plush walked him through how to use the Fly card, somehow adding wings onto his staff. The bear helped him to his feet so that he could sit on the bar before the wings behind him flapped and they were sent off in the air.

His memory of the flight was fuzzy as sleep slowly claimed him, but he could remember the small houses before suddenly Kero was escorting him back into his room and into his futon, wishing him sweet dreams before his eyes closed one last time.

* * *

Todoroki slapped his phone, hoping he hit the right button to turn his alarm off. His body ached and the dream he had last night gave him no peace of mind. His sister would appreciate the fable tale though.

While he wished he could stay in bed forever there were things to get done and a school to attend, so he pushed himself up and out of his room, stumbling to the kitchen.

The kitchen was empty so he claimed his spot by setting a bowl and box of cereal down in front of his chair, slowly lowering himself onto the piece of furniture so as to not irritate his injuries.

The cereal clicked in the bowl as it was poured out of its box and he shoveled it into his mouth, glad his sister wasn’t around to pester him about not using milk in his breakfast routine.

“How did you sleep?”

Speak of the devil, he sighed into his cereal. “Horrible, I had the craziest dream-“ wait, his sister’s voice was high pitched, but not like that had sounded. He whipped his head around to face whomever the question came from and came face to face with that yellow bear from his dream.

With an embarrassing yelp Todoroki fell out of his chair, staring up at the bear in horror. “Yo-you’re that thing.” Okay, so maybe last night wasn’t a dream or something he would be able to sweep under a rug, but one can hope.

“I’m not “that thing”! My name is Kero!” The plush huffed, floating down to Todoroki’s level on the floor. “You really have bad manners, huh.”

Pain ran down his arm as he pushed himself up and back into the seat, giving the toy a dangerous look as it stared judgmentally at his cereal. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing here?”

Kero blew a raspberry at the boy and stirred the dry cereal around with the metal spoon. “In case you've forgotten, you made a contract with the cards and you have to get them all back.” 

Todoroki snatched his spoon back. “Last night was a one time deal.” He said, scarfing down the rest of the cereal so he could get on with the rest of his routine.

“Nuh uh,” Kero tutted, “I’m afraid that’s not how it works. You’re the Card Captor and so you need to capture the cards before they end up hurting someone.”

Saving the internal struggle over whether or not he should partake in such ‘hero’ work for later, Todoroki pushed on with his other questions. “That doesn’t explain why you’re still here in my house.”

The plush looked offended at that and the bi haired teen had to push away the satisfaction he felt. “I’m the _guardian best of the seal!_ Of course I’m going to be here to make sure the cards are-“

“Shouto?” His sister called, her light footsteps echoing down the hall.

Acting quickly, Todoroki grabbed the plush and held him under the table, away from sight. “Good morning.” He greeted as the girl walked into the kitchen, a soft smile resting on her face.

“No milk again?” She asked, quietly laughing to herself as she crossed the room over to the fridge.

Todoroki slid out of his seat, “You don’t mess with perfection.” The teen then bid farewell to his sister and left to change into his school uniform.

The door to his room slid closed behind him and he yanked the plush out of his pocket, ignoring his yell of ‘Oi, watch it!’. He crossed his room over to the closet and pulled out the clothes he would be needing.

The bear poked around at his belongings while he changed, it annoyed him to no end but at least the two of them weren’t bickering in the meanwhile.

“I’m heading to school now.” The boy annnouced to the toy, grabbing his school bag off of his desk and hoisting it onto his shoulder. The bear looked happy at that and floated infront of him.

“Alright! Let’s go!” He cheered, pumping his fist into the air excitedly.

“What? No,” Todoroki hissed, walking over to his door and glaring at the plush. “There’s no you and I in this, you’ll stay here while I go to class.” He explained, reviving a pout in response.

“That’s not fair!” Kero whined, flopping onto the boy’s futon. “I need to be with you in case of a Clow card emergency!”

“I disagree.” Todoroki interjected, slipping his phone onto his pocket before double checking his mental list that he had everything. He was good to go.

Unfortunately for his peace of mind, Kero kept complaining, refusing to take no as an answer. He was forced to listen to the plush rant on and on about how this wasn’t fair and what Todoroki was doing was too dangerous to do alone. Eventually the boy gave up, if only to get the bear to shut up.

“Stay quiet, okay? I’m serious.” He instructed to the plush hiding in his school bag, getting a muffled reply in response. He let out a strained sigh, this was going to be a long day.

He pulled the door to his classroom open and closed behind him, taking long strides to his desk, successfully avoiding paying attention to everyone’s glances. He took his seat and pulled his phone out of his pocket, choosing to focus on the device rather than make conversation with any of his classmates.

As he placed his bag on its hook attached to his desk, the creature inside made a sound of confusion, like they couldn’t understand his odd behaviour. It didn’t matter to Todoroki though, Kero was supposed to keep his mouth shut today so he couldn’t be bothered to feel offended or awkward.

The teen scrolled through the many hero sites on the web, most discussing about All Might's appearance at the UA high school.

While his new classmates didn’t know him that well, everyone would describe Todoroki as cold, boring, and realistic. He was most of the things they all thought and saw him as, and he prefers to keep it that way. His attitude towards others kept them at arms length and out of his business.

Truth be told, he envied the green haired boy in his class; Midoryia. The hero fan that ranted and raved about everything he knew about heroes and their quirk, his friends not completely understanding, but accepting his interests in stride.

While friends weren’t one of Todoroki’s interests, hero’s were. He liked to keep up with the latest news about all of them. It didn’t matter if the headline read “New debut hero Shadow rescued a cat from a tree” or “All Might saved 100 innocents from falling to their doom inside a worn down office building.”, it was all interesting to him. 

Over the years Todoroki had built up his own reputation, not just his real life cold, brooding boy one, but instead the nerdy, wacky online hero nerd who put out bullshit theories for fun and memed with his online associates.

Beside the abuse that came from within that household, Todoroki quite enjoyed his life, keeping his online self separate from the person everyone else knew him as.

Maybe it was all the trauma he experienced and still does that caused him to use the internet as some sort of outlet that he could let loose on. The internet was a horrible, yet amazing place. It took a while before he found a place he was comfortable, but he eventually did it, finding the right hero group discussion that fit with his needs and accepted him no matter the cost.

The people there loved his crazy theories, especially the one about how Endeavor was reincarnated from an angry raccoon who died because it was putted across a baseball field into a deep fryer in a hotdog stand. To be fair, that one was one of his favourites too.

They didn’t mind his inability to connect or communicate properly with them, they were actually quite amused with his knowledge of memes and unique ability to make up any crazy theory. The boy got requests for silly stories quite often and he loved fulfilling them, it brought a smile to both his and other people’s faces.

“He is pretty cute.” Kero mused, peeking out from the bag and looking to where Todoroki stared off in thought. Of all places he just so happened to be caught in thought while staring at Midoriya. Great.

He kicked the bag and the plush fell back in with a small yelp, bringing a smile to the boy’s face, well, not actually, but he felt the joy that would accompany such an action.

“Rude ass.” The toy hissed from his place beside Tororoki’s desk, earning the bag another kick and glare as Todoroki tried to get the message across. _Be quiet_.

“Monsieur Todoroki, are you alright?” A blond- Aoyama Yuuga, if he remembered correctly, asked. He eyed both Todoroki and the boy’s bag wearily, like something weird was going on. Since when can’t someone kick their bag in peace anymore.

“Yes” he easily replied, staring at the other till he felt uncomfortable and excused himself to his own desk. Todoroki felt a little bad about it, but most of him frankly didn’t care, not everyone needed their business butted into. Especially not him.

Their home room teacher, Aizawa walked through the door, sliding it closed behind him before making his way over to the podium.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Todoroki let himself relax, school was finally starting. Compared to others he actually enjoyed school, it was relaxing and more easy going than his own home. School was his safe haven.

* * *

Even the nice things in his life get ruined. 

He was enjoying their English class, taught by Present Mic, who Todoroki knew for a fact was fluent in the language, when all chaos erupted for him.

One second Hagakure was reading the Edgar Allen Poe’s poem their teacher had passed out and the next Kero was shooting straight up out of his bag yelling “I can sense a Clow card!”

Todoroki quickly plucked the bear out of the air and under his desk as everybody glanced around the room to look for who interrupted the invisible girl’s read through. Well, technically it wasn’t him so he was safe.

While a blond who he couldn’t remember the name of, yelled at Midoryia who sat behind him, Todoroki planned out his escape.

Kero wouldn’t stop squirming in his hold and the toy would most likely start whining and put up a fight if last night and this morning were anything to go by. He needed to get out of here and fast.

He held up his hand while the class developed into everyone screaming and trying to pry the blond off of Midoriya. Their teacher looked exhausted and close to crying, but noticed the boy’s hand amongst the crowd. He walked down the isle of yelling students and stood by Todoroki’s desk, a sheepish expression on his face. 

“Yes, Todoroki?”

He let his free hand fall back down to his side. “I’m not feeling well, may I go the the nurse’s office?” He steeled his expression and tried not to let anything show as that goddamn plush bit his finger.

“Oh, uh,” the yelling across the room escalated and the teacher looked back and forth between the crowd of students and Todoroki. He ushered the boy towards the door before rushing into the center of the chaos. “Yes, yes, feel better, okay?”

As soon as his teacher turned his back, Todoroki bolted out the door and down the hall, letting go of Kero as he sprinted down the halls, the bear righting itself and flying next to him. 

“You’re lucky I haven’t transformed into my true form and made you beg for mercy!” The bear yelled, cheeks puffed out as they pouted along the way.

“Sorry.” Todoroki apologized, not entirely meaning it, the bear was the one who caused an interruption in his class. “Where is the Clow card?” He asked, eager to quickly capture the creature as fast he possible and head back to class.

Kero abruptly stopped in the hall, causing Todoroki to skid to a stop as well. The bear closed its beady eyes and tried concentrating on the card’s magical power that he could briefly sense in the classroom before rocketing off down the hallway once more, the bi haired teen in tow.

“It’s outside the school building!” The bear exclaimed and Todoroki sped up down the halls, matching the bear’s pace. “I can’t tell what card it is yet though.”

The two raced down the stairs and out the front doors of the school, running down the path to the front entrance before something shot out of the brushes in front of Todoroki.

The boy leaned back and nearly avoided getting hit, his reaction time was too slow, he needed to get stronger.

A pink bunny bounced in front of the duo, it’s eyes sharp and a peculiar long tail stretched behind it. It jumped higher as if boasting about its ability. Todoroki raised his right hand to shoot a stream of ice to catch it but without warning the rabbit shot off down the path.

“It’s the Jump card!” Kero told him as they chased after the rabbit, jumping over bushes and flowers in the winding path before passing by the front gate. “Unless you have some sort of super speed we won’t be able to catch up.”

Todoroki simply nodded in response, reaching into his shirt and pulling off his necklace. “Key which hides the powers of the dark, reveal your true nature to me.” He recited as the key began to give a familiar glow. “I, Todoroki Shouto, command you under our contract, release!”

The key spun and his staff fit snugly in the palm of his hand, he turned a corner and pulled out the Clow card from within his pocket, tossing it in front of him and thrusting the staff at it.

“Fly!” The staff glowed as the card disappeared, two white wings devolving just below the top of the staff. He swung it between his legs and jumped up, sitting on the pole as it took him soaring in the air.

He surveyed the ground below him as Kero struggled to keep up, finding a pink blurr he angled his staff down. He dove through the air after the rabbit, scenarios playing out in his head, he needed to catch this card as fast as he could.

The boy pulled the staff out from underneath him and called to his ice, forming a slope for him to slide down, jumping off onto the playground’s gravel, the rocks giving a crunching sound under his feet.

The rabbit jumped around, zooming past him, using the playground’s accessories to its advantage. Kero joined him, floating by his side and watched with an exhaustion as the rabbit circled around them.

“Got any ideas?” The bear asked him, letting out a small cry of desperation.

Todoroki nodded. “Not an ideal one but,” he squared his body and winded his arms up behind him, both firmly grasping his staff. “It’s an idea.” 

Like he figured out the creature’s plan he visibly relaxed, the rabbit shooting directly at him. He swung the staff out in front of him and the tool met the rabbit with a sickening crack before it flew up into the air above them, slowly coming to a stop before ascending back down.

“What the hell was that?!” Kero screeched, watching with wide eyes as the rabbit came falling down on them.

“An idea.” Todoroki retorted in his usual monotone voice. He held the staff up above his head and the rabbit began to change into liquid. “Return to your original form, CLOW CARD!” It swirled around them and into a spiral at the top of the staff, slowly forming another card.

The boy gently caught the card between his finger and brought out Fly, holding the two side by side. While Fly’s card design was of a giant, monstrous bird, the Jump card had the design of an energetic rabbit with a long tail and beautiful, soft wings.

“Remind me to never get on your bad side.” Kero muttered, plopping down on Tododroki’s shoulder and admiring the new card.

“Who ever said you were on my good side?”

* * *

The duo made it back to class before the school’s final bells rang and the students were let out. Present Mic shared his congratulations to the news of Todoroki feeling better as he shuffled out of the classroom, holding his lesson plans and notebooks in his arms.

“So, where to now?” Kero asked from his place on the boy’s shoulder as they walked along the sidewalk. “Are you going to go hang out with friends? Or get ready for a party?”

Todoroki snorted, “We’re going home.” He said, hoisting his bag back on his spare shoulder from where it slipped off.

The plush gasped, almost drawing the attention of passersby. “You’re so boring! You need to learn how to be more fun, Shouto.”

“It’s Todoroki.” The boy corrected, sighing, already exhausted by the day’s activities, his body still aching from yesterday’s. 

He couldn’t handle another day of training, maybe he could steal his father’s credit card and rent out a hotel room for the night, just one night for his body to relax and rest up. Besides the pain he’s had to deal with a new assortment of changes. Annoying ones, like the one resting on his shoulder.

“We need to have some rules.” Todoroki said, eyeing the bear on the corner of his eye. “What happened today can’t ever happen again, okay? If you want to keep coming with me to school then you’re going to have to stay _quiet_.”

The plush rubbed the back of his head and chuckled sheepishly. “Yeah, sorry about that, it surprised me and I acted without thinking.”

“Mm.” The bi haired teen hummed, doing some window shopping as they walked by some stores on the way home.

Kero made a sound of alarm. “Hey, aren’t those your classmates up ahead?” Sure enough Midoriya and his gang were coming out of a hero merchandise store with a few bags lining their arm. They were laughing and affectionately shoving each other’s shoulders. “Why don’t you go join them?” The plush suggested.

Todoroki adjusted the bag on his shoulder, “That’s not my kind of thing.” He said, turning into the next alley that came up, stepping around the trash bags and garbage cans.

The bear snorted like what he said was a joke. “What, friends?”

“Yes.” He glared at the offending crow that squawked at him all because the bird thought he was going to take his dead, organ strewn prey. No thanks. “Drop it.” He said to Kero opening this mouth, ready to make fun of the boy. “Please.”

The toy nodded and sat back, seeming content to look at their nasty, darkened surroundings.

“You could have least switched to the other side of the road than this alley.”

“Shut it.”

Todoroki threw his bag onto his desk and collapsed onto his futon, giving a halfhearted scream into his pillow.

“Was the walk home with me that bad?” Kero joked, trying to get a laugh out of the boy.

Truthfully, it wasn’t, not that Todoroki would admit to the plush, but his body was still sore, the pain not having moved on.

He still had another training session tonight, he wished he didn’t have to go, but sometimes Lady Luck was not, or in Todoroki’s case, _never_ on his side. Hopefully he at least had time to write up a new theory, he had gotten a request while at school to do another one about Endeavour, his online associates cheering him on when he informed them of the news.

The chat had suggested he do a theory about Endeavour’s flames, linking it up with his angry raccoon one. He supposed he could create a story of how due to the sins he committed as a raccoon he was condemned to hell. Although being the shit little beast he was, he stole the flames of hell and when it was his time to return to earth, the power stayed with him and was labeled as his quirk. He would have to add more nonsense here and there, but it wasn’t a bad outline for him to follow along with.

His phone chirped and he sluggishly pulled it out of his pocket, turning it on with a click of the power button. The screen light was blinding as it blasted into his eyes, but the message brought a smile to his face, hidden within the fabric of the pillow.

It was a private message from his favourite member of the chat; Smallmight715.

_I can’t wait to read the sequel to fire raccoon (｡’▽’｡)_

As of now, Todoroki couldn’t either.

The boy, from what he could gather through their messages, was just as into hero’s as he was. Perhaps not as cultured in the ways of memes, but nobody was perfect. Smallmight715 was very close to the definition of perfect though, he checked off every one of Todoroki’s boxes.

The boy was kind to a fault, he cared more about the bi haired teen than his own being. His attitude was always upbeat and cheerful, it never failed to make Todoroki’s day feel better, even if he was beaten to the ground minutes before. 

Smallmight715 accepted Todoroki as this weird, wacko stranger that was _way_ too into memes. He never ridiculed him about his interests or level of communication and Todoroki returned the favour. The boy felt like someone that he might just be able to call a friend, but did the other feel the same? 

While he talked big about not needing friends, some of the truth that ached in his soul was that he couldn’t handle people not liking him for him. Once they knew about his obsessions and nerdiness, would they tease him? Bully him and tell his father just to prove to the man that his son was a bigger disappointment than he originally perceived him as?

He was vulnerable once, giving his heart and warmth to others as much as they needed it, giving every piece of happiness he could gather to _her_. In the end being vulnerable and being _himself_ got him nothing but a huge burn on the left side of his face.

The front door slammed shut and the teen shot up out of bed, racing over to Kero as the footsteps crashed down the hall towards his room.

“Please stay here and be quiet.” He all but begged to the plush, opening his closet and tossing the bear in, holding the door shut behind him as he faced the opposite end of the room.

His father ripped his bedroom door open, staring down at the shivering teen, grunting “Time to train.” before stopping down to the training hall.

Todoroki calmed his breathing as the man left, praying that Kero would stay out as he backed away and exited his room. His sister peaked out of her bedroom and gave him a pitting look. He just kept looking head on and not at her expression that might just make him break down into a pile of tears.

Why did he have to go through with this? Why was his father so obsessed with that man that he needed to create the perfect tool, the perfect _weapon_ to knock All Might off his throne? Why couldn’t that bastard see that his children were people too, that they have feelings, emotions, _limits_ and you can’t just train them all day and night and expect them to take on He-Man while they’re still considered a child.

Todoroki had so many questions and not enough answers. He let out a shaky breath, shaking his head before entering the training room. “Ah shit, here we go again.”

* * *

He returned back to his room later that night, pulling open the closet doors and letting Kero breath in the fresh air flowing in from his open window.

“Gah!” The bear gasped, taking in the cool air in big gulps. “What the hell did you lock me into that hot closet for?!” He yelled, flying into the teen’s face, mouth pulled into a snarl.

“So-sorry.” Todoroki croaked out, shuffling over to his bed and dropping down on top of it.

Feeling that something was wrong, Kero flew over to the light switch and turned it on with a small click. The light hummed alive and shone onto the beaten boy, his body beaten black and blue, blood seeping onto his dress shirt.

The plush was left speechless, looking at the teen with horror leaking from his eyes. “Wh-what…?” He tried to push the question plaguing his mind out, but his mouth refused to do anything else except gap openly like a fish.

The bear swooped down next to the teen, unsure if he should try and attempt to rest a comforting hand on his shoulder. “What happened?” He tried asking, _finally_ having the words fall out of his mouth.

The boys hair covered his eyes as he laid, the plush unable to read his expression. “Goodnight, Kero.” He whispered, moving his body with a muffled groan. Trying to find a comforting sleeping position that didn’t make his body hurt like hell was more complicated than not.

“A-are you okay?” Kero asked, plopping down next to the boy’s head, resting his own head onto the pillow.

“Goodnight, Kero.” The teen repeated. Thankfully for him, Kero remained silent, keeping any and all questions to himself. It was for the best this way. Ignorance is bliss.

“Goodnight, Shouto.” The bear whispered back.


	2. I don’t need friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s the third day of being the Cardcaptor, what does the day have in store for Todoroki?

“So,” Todoroki began, stretching his arms above his head with a groan. “Before we get started with whatever fuckery today has for me, I have a question.”

Kero mimicked his cross legged position on the futon in front of the boy, looking absolutely horrified. “I feel as if we should talk about how you just stole an entire box of cereal from the kitchen and are eating through it like it’s candy.” the bear pointed out, gesturing to the large red box of Fruit Loops the boy had acquired in his morning kitchen raid.

“Don’t question my life choices like this.” The teen muttered, shoving another handful into his mouth if not just to piss Kero off. “I just don’t feel like sitting at the table today.”

Todoroki would rather sit on his comfy, fluffy futon than force his aching body to sit in the hard kitchen chair and be the victim of his sister’s interrogation. It was an easy choice really, the only hard part was deciding which cereal he didn’t mind having crumbs of all over his bed.

He set the box to the side and faced the stuffed animal once more. “You said only the Cardcaptor can capture the cards, but I don’t understand why.”

Kero nodded along as he thought about his answer. “The cards are on a different level than other powers, only the same kind of magical power can counteract them.” The toy explained, pushing himself to his feet and waddling over to the pillow.

Todoroki held his chin in the palm of his hand, staring off at the far wall in thought before directing his gaze at the bear again. “I think what you’re trying to say is that quirks won’t work on the cards, but I used my ice on Fly and it did the trick.”

Kero pulled out the cards that were quietly resting underneath the fluffy headrest and waved one of them around. “That’s because you matched them.” The bear flew over to Todoroki's side and passed him the cards before finding his place on the boy's shoulder. “Ever play Uno?”

The teen nodded. “Once, a long time ago.”

“Well, think of the magical power of the cards like Uno.” Kero started, rubbing his chin thoughtfully as he spoke. “The cards are all number sevens, you all with your quirks are number fives. Sevens can compete with each other because they’re the same number, but fives can’t even touch them without one exception.”

“Unless the colour matches.” Todoroki added, placing the cards down onto the futon. “But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Everyone else in the world, their quirks are every colour in the five type cards except red, okay? Imagine at the top of the Clow cards deck is a red seven, now when you made a contract with the Clow cards, it changed your coloured five to red so now-”

“So now I can play because I match the top card.” The bi haired teen interrupted, pushing himself to his feet and heading towards his closet with rushed strides. 

“Exactly!” Kero exclaimed, flying off of his shoulder as the boy picked out his clothes for the day. “After you catch some more cards, your own Uno card will change into a wild plus four card where you can catch and match the power of any of the other cards regardless of their colour.”

Todoroki stripped off his bloodied dress shirt from the other day, tossing it into the laundry bin and pulling a clean on off of its hanger. “So what cards am I able to capture as of now?”

Kero winced as he got a look of the boy’s beaten body, his heart aching but he stayed on their conversation, knowing the teen wouldn’t answer any of his questions or concerns anyhow. “So far you have Fly and Jump,” the two said cards started to glow with a yellow hue and float in the air around the flying plush. “Those two are under the moon’s jurisdiction, whether it be coincidence or fate you might be more in tune with the moon cards.”

The teen swapped out his pants for a new pair and swung his blazer over his shoulder, spinning in his heel to face Kero. “So..?”

The bear sighed and crossed his legs while still floating in the air. “Let’s say the moon cards are red and the sun cards are blue, until you catch enough Clow cards, your red card won’t turn into a wild plus four.”

Todoroki bit the inside of his cheek as he packed his school bag, shoving the pens he forgot to bring yesterday into his little turquoise pencil case. “So if I come face to face with a sun card as of now, I’m screwed?”

“Well yes, but actually no.” Todoroki whipped his head around at that, but the small plush didn’t seem to realize it was a meme and carried on. “Not all sun cards are immensely powerful, if you end up facing against a lower level card then you should have enough power to capture them.”

“I see..” The boy trailed off in thought, zipping up his bag and slinging his blazer onto his shoulders. “Well, it’s time for school now, Kero.”

* * *

“I swear to god I’m going to freeze that annoying bastard where he stands.” Todoroki huffed, slamming his tray onto the lunch table located in the far corner of the cafeteria.

Kero peeked his teddy bear head out of the boy’s blazer pocket, resting his head in his palm with a sigh. “Blasty has quite the temper, doesn’t he.” 

The teen slid into the seat with a muffled groan and snatched his chopsticks from the tray. “He’s like a child when he doesn’t get his way.” He dug into his cold soba and brought the meal to his lips.

Just like the previous day before, his classmate Bakugou Katsuki was involved in an argument with his other classmate, Midoriya Izuku. Argument seemed like a broad term as it was actually just the blond screaming at the greenette to shut up and die multiple times. 

Midoriya caved into his shy nature and huddled in on himself while his brown hair friend, Uraraka demanded the blond to leave them alone. After voicing his opinion, Bakugou spun on his heel and stormed out of the classroom, but not without bumping into Todoroki.

Pain shot through every limb and he had to bite down on his tongue to keep himself from gasping in pain. Last night's training was harder than he would have liked, his father made sure he was thoroughly beaten before he was allowed to throw in the towel. As long as he didn’t move too fast and strayed away from anything touching him, he was fine.

Bakugou cursed and swore more than could ever be deemed necessary, at the bi haired boy, like it was Todoroki’s own decision to be used as a tackling dummy. The situation escalated as Bakugou realized Todoroki wasn’t taking the bait and refused to argue, the blond snarling in his face and grabbing a hold of his tie. Everything was resolved for the most part when Todoroki took his leave and left the angry Pomeranian without a word, although he almost knew for a fact that Bakugou would be back for more.

Kero flapped his wings and flew out of the teen’s pocket, choosing to sit against Todoroki’s glass of water, hidden from view. “Well, you all can still be considered children, yknow.”

The teen gave him an unimpressed glare before slurping up the rest of the noodles hanging off his chopsticks. “Whatever.”

Kero eyed his lunch, drool dripping from his mouth. While the bear looked like an inanimate object, he was very real and _very_ hungry. After being stuck in the clow book for hundreds of years without a proper meal, who could ever blame the plush for trying to snag a chunk of the boy’s lunch. Todoroki could. 

The teen smacked the plush’s offending hand with his chopsticks. “Mine.” He muttered, shoving the rest of the soba into his mouth and slurping it up with a practiced finesse.

Kero’s stomach rumbled with the equivalent of sounding like an earthquake, the bear started to pout and hold his stomach, eyes watering in an attempt to guilt trip the teen.

Todoroki’s eyes narrowed and he let out a strained sigh, closing his eyes shut to regain a handle on his emotions. “Fine,” he hissed. “There’s a bakery on the way home, we can stop there after school.” 

The teen did a mental check on how much money he currently had on him. It had been a while since he had stolen his father’s credit card, but the last time he did he took out 5,000 yen to keep on his person. The money was most likely still in his school bag, Kero could pick out whatever treat he wanted with that amount.

“Alright!” The plush cheered, pumping his fist into the air with a renewed passion, drool coming out of his mouth like a waterfall. “Hmm, I wonder what kind of delicious desserts they’ll have~!”

The bi haired teen made a mental note on Kero’s obvious love of sweet things, perhaps it would come handy in the future if he ever needed to bribe the plush.

“Monsieur Todoroki?” Aoyama began, standing across the table from where the bi haired teen sat. “Would it be alright if I sat with you?” The blond elegantly rushed to sit in the seat before Todoroki could answer.

“No.” He steeled his expression and stared at his classmate, hoping that it would make them feel uncomfortable and unnerved, but the blond simply gave a strained laugh and waved his hand around like Todoroki had made a joke.

Kero dove off the plate and into his lap, making sure Aoyama wouldn’t be able to catch sight of him. The plush gently punched Todoroki’s arm at his answer, berating him through harsh whispers. 

“Are you excited for our field trip this afternoon?” The blond asked, trying to spark up a conversation, one that was very unwanted.

“Not in the slightest.” Todoroki grabbed his glass of water and let the cold water refresh his mouth. Maybe if he drank the whole glass at a reasonable pace throughout their ‘talk’, he wouldn’t have to engage at all.

Aoyama sucked in a deep breath and puffed out his chest. “Well, I most certainly am thrilled to be wearing my hero outfit again, c’est magnifique!” A smile played on the boy's lips as he thought back to his wonderful design.

A frown played on Todoroki’s as he thought about the same outfit. The cape was absolutely appalling by his standards, the sparkles shined every ray of sunlight into his eyes without mercy. Maybe it was more on the fact that Todoroki only had thirty minutes of sleep that night before his eyes were forced to look at that horrible sight, that could explain why he hated it so much.

Putting the cape aside, the armour looked heavy, weighing the boy down and slowing his attacks. It wasn’t practical in any way, shape, or form, except for being able to take a hit without damage.

Although Todoroki would be lying if he said that the armour and glasses didn’t look cool, but there was no way he would ever utter that out loud.

The teen simply sighed into his glass and slowly sipped the rest of his water, avoiding any and all eye contact with the blond.

“Monsieur Aizawa said that we would be doing rescue training, non?” Aoyama plunged his chopsticks into his bento and shoved the rice into his mouth with a happy exclamation. “I wonder what exactly our training will be like!”

“Mm.” Todoroki hummed, resting his elbows onto the table as he neared the end of his water supply, he could only avoid talking to his classmate for so long before he was backed into a corner. 

“Of course it’ll be easy for you of course, mon amie,” the blond tapped the utensils against his lips in thought, glancing up at the roof. “your quirk is very powerful, non?”

The bi haired teen’s grip on the glass tightened, a sour taste filling his mouth as his eyebrows furrowed. His quirk was always a sensitive subject for him, he loved the ice but despised the other half of it. 

Ice was beautiful, cold, but it would shimmer beautifully in the light regardless of where it was at. His mother’s ice was gentle and powerful all at once, it could create sculptures or a harsh, frozen glacier. It didn’t burn or destroy things the way that fire was known to do, it didn’t play by the same rules.

“I am curious though, I’ve only ever seen you use your ice, mon amie, but I’ve heard from the gossip around the school that you have another half of your quirk that you don’t use.” 

Fire was chaotic, hard to control, and a nightmare. It burned down everything in its path, turning it into an endless trail of ashes and soot. Fire was hurtful, abusive, it never listened and only drove people around it to insanity. Fire was what hurt people, what hurt him the most.

Nothing good ever came of that element. Sure, it could keep you warm and alive, but what good was it when it melted your flesh into a blackened blob, blood flowing out of your body until it’s cauterized. What good was it when it stole the homes of animals and humans alike, ripping their property and place of belonging right out from under them.

Fire has many uses, if used right it can be on the side of good, but the ever growing flames can and will always wreak havoc if not properly contained. People burn with anger and other various emotions, fire can so easily leak out of them at the simplest thing, it can torch a child to death without any remorse.

Fire is death and ice is life.

Aoyama tossed one of his octopus like sausages into his mouth, chewing without a care in the world. “It makes sense with your hair that your other quirk is fire. Why don’t you ever use it though, Monsieur?”

Todoroki could feel something in him snap, emotions flooding through his body like a dam was ripped open. He slammed his now empty glass onto the tray, eyes narrowed in a deadly glare. “I’m not here to make friends or chat.” He growled, pushing his chair back with the backs of his knees, shoving the yellow plush on his lap into his pocket, and snatching his tray from the table.

Aoyama’s face had shock written all over it and Todoroki couldn’t find it in himself to care. The teen huffed and crossed the cafeteria, shoving the napkins into the garbage and placing his tray onto the top, storming out of the room the second it was complete.

Kero popped his head out of the boy’s pocket, “What was that about?” He asked dubiously, upset that the boy had ruined a perfectly good chance at making a friend. “He was just trying to make conversation with you.”

Todoroki glared at him from the corner of his eye, sending chills down the plush’s spine. “Shut up.” He hissed, taking long strides down the hall and shoving the bathroom door open with a large push.

Kero flew out of his pocket, steeling his nerves and getting in the other’s face. “Hey!” He yelled, “That guy didn’t do anything wrong so you had no way to speak to him like that!”

The teen bared his teeth and pushed past the plush and to the sink. “Don’t talk about things you don’t understand.” Todoroki turned on the tap, cupping his hands under the rushing water and splashing the cold liquid onto his face.

“I understand that what you did was wrong!” The bear argued, flying down to the edge of the sink and dodging the droplets of water that splashed at him. “You need to apologize to him.” 

Todoroki whipped his head around to growl at Kero’s face, turning the tap off with the hand that wasn't clenched at his side. “Me?! I need to apologize to _him?!_ ” A laugh tumbled out of his throat and he took a threatening step forward. “You're just a plush who’s only task is watching a few cards so of course you wouldn’t understand. How’s that going for you by the way?”

The bear glared at the teen with his beady eyes, but Todoroki raised his chin in challenge. “You know damn well that the missing cards are your fault!” Kero flapped his wings and shoved Todoroki’s chest, causing him to stumble back.

“Really?” He hissed, shoulders hunching up and he leaned forward. “It’s your job to stop people like me from fucking up your precious cards, don’t blame me for your inability to do your own job.” Ice started to harden on the boy’s cheek as his quirk activated subconsciously, frost crawling up the right side of his face.

Kero's teeth started to show as his own anger grew. “You must be fucking up your own job pretty damn well if dear old dad thought it was right to teach you a lesson!” When the teen’s eyes widened the plush let out a scoff. “The walls of your closet or thin, kid, I could hear the voice of your father telling you it was time to train.”

Todoroki’s breaths grew heavier and he stormed across the bathroom in front of Kero. “If you know what’s good for you you’ll keep your mouth shut.”

“Aww, what’s wrong?” Kero whined, faking concern. “Your dad too upset that you’re a momma's boy or something?” A smirk placed itself on the plush’s face as he egged to boy on. “I bet she’s _real_ proud of you, huh?” 

A strangled choke left the bear as Todoroki rammed him against the wall, hand over the plush’s throat. The teen’s cold breath tickled his face as he let out an angered huff, eyes burning with their own intense flame.

“Don’t you _ever_ ” Todoroki said slowly, voice low and threatening. “talk about my mother.” His eyes held such hate, a passion fueled by misery that he couldn’t let go of. Everything about him was different compared to the boy this morning who was casually shoving handfuls of cereal into his mouth.

Kero stayed silent, awaiting for the boy's next move, for him to strike the finishing blow. A headache was starting to form in the plush’s head as his air was being slowly cut off by the teen’s hand, whether he realized what he was doing or not.

With one last shove, Todoroki pushed himself away and crossed the room and over to the door, shooting Kero one last glance over his shoulder. “Find your own way home or better yet, don’t.” The door slammed shut behind him.

Kero slid down the wall and plopped onto his plush bottom on the floor, staring at the door with wide eyes. Great, now what was he gonna do.

* * *

Todoroki rested his head against the cool window of the bus as it rumbled along the streets. Maybe he was a bit too harsh with Kero, but he was already on edge and the bear did nothing but egg him on till he blew up in his face.

A sigh escaped the boy's lips, he should be better at keeping his cool, having his emotions under wraps and away from the surface, but for some reason it all bubbled up with ease today. He felt shameful to admit that Kero was probably right and he needed to apologize to Aoyama.

The blond shouldn’t have been poking his nose into places where it didn’t belong, but it’s not like Todoroki directly told him not to talk about his fire side, it was just something that he tried to heavily imply. As sensitive as it was to him, other people didn’t know the boundaries he dared not to label, they roamed without knowing if they stepped past the line till it was too late.

He couldn’t very well blame Aoyama either for living a life where he can waste time with such a thing as friends, Todoroki just didn’t have that luxury, he had to be a hero fast unless he wanted another trip to the ER. His classmate was just trying to live his life, but he just couldn’t realize on his own that the bi haired teen wanted no part of it.

If an opportunity showed itself where the teen could apologize to the other male without him thinking that there was even a sliver of a chance for them to be friends, then he would take it. He truly did want to be better than his father and owning up to his mistakes seemed like a sturdy place to start.

His classmates chatted around him but they were just background music to his own thoughts, doing nothing to deter him from wandering his own mind.

While he somewhat regretted his argument with Kero, he didn’t entirely feel like he was in the wrong. The bear had hit nerve after nerve, forcing him to act out against him. In hindsight he could understand why the plush yelled at him about how he was an ass to Aoyama, but in Todoroki’s mind it didn’t excuse the fact that he brought up not only his father, but his mother too.

His left hand brushed against his scar, the tissue burning with a phantom pain at the memories.

It had been years now, but that day still felt like yesterday. He could remember the chills that ran down his spine as his mother grabbed a fistful of his hair and angled his head back, the kettle tipping before an intense burning sensation covered the left half of his face.

He could remember the bandages pressed against the burned tissue as his father spat insults directed as his loving mother who was taken away from him. He could remember how the pain on his face lessened and the one is his heart grew, how a fire was lit, one screaming that it was all _his_ fault, that sorry excuse of a father.

Kero didn’t, _couldn’t_ have known about his past, the bear was just as riled up as he was, spouting word after word and hoping one of them hit a nerve. The plush did manage to, kudos to him, but Todoroki did and said some awful things in retaliation. The teen shouldn’t have shoved him into the wall or roared insults at the plush like he did.

The bus jerked forward as it came to a stop, effectively jolting Todoroki out of his own mind.

“We’re here.” Aizawa-Sensei announced from his place at the front of the bus, pushing himself out of his seat and stretching his arms, earning a few satisfying cracks in return.

Todoroki slid himself out of his seat and down the aisle of the bus, jumping off the top step and landing with a contained wheeze. Sharp stabs of pain shot through his body and he slowly straightened his back, pushing himself forward in an attempt to walk it off. This was fine.

The rescue hero, Thirteen, greeted the group as they walked through the large front doors. They wore their well known hero costume of a spacesuit, the helmet visor filled with a black void and two white eyes.

“Hello everyone! I’ve been waiting for you all.” The astronaut bent at the waist in a bow, their arm swung out ahead of them. Todoroki shoved his squealing classmate’s voices to the back of his mind and listened as the hero continued. “Welcome to the USJ, behind me you can see that we have the Shipwreck zone, Landslide zone, Fire dome, Windstorm dome, etc.!”

The teen’s classmates oohed and awed as they fully took in their surroundings, at the full display the USJ offered. Todoroki studied each section quickly, filing away notes about each zone and what problems might arise.

“I’ve created this facility to prepare you for different types of disasters, I call it the Unforeseen Simulation Joint!” Thirteen went on, wildly gesturing to humongous zones behind them. They cleared their throat before addressing the class once more. “Before we begin, let me say one thing, two, three- maybe four or five..”

Todoroki could hear Bakugou groaning and angrily scuffing the ground in annoyance. He probably could relate if all the anger in his body wasn’t already drained from his body due to the incident during lunch.

The rescue hero was joined by Aizawa-Sensei at their side as they continued on without hesitation. “Listen carefully, as I’m sure you’re aware-“

Nope, that was it. Todoroki was too emotionally drained to bring himself to even care about listening. He simply played with a hangnail on his ring finger, giving it a tug before a drop of blood leaked out from his wound.

_”I bet she’s_ real _proud of you, huh?”_

_“-and Shouto, he looks more like him everyday, I can’t take it anymore!”_

Crescent shaped indents made themselves home in Todoroki’s palm as he found out that, yes, he in fact did have more anger to spare.

_”Mommy? What’s wrong?”_

Stop. Just stop thinking, let the memories stay in the past. He took a deep breath and held it in his lungs before slowly releasing it out.

Todoroki loved his mother, to him the sun rose and set on her. She was nothing but kind and gentle towards him, she used to comb through his hair and sing him songs while he slept. She always found a place to hang up his drawings where his father wouldn’t tear them down, and his mother would hold him tight in her arms and turn on the illegal All Might interview Touya had smuggled into the house when he awoke from nightmares. She was his favourite person in the whole wide world, she protected him through so much abuse and hate. Even when she was pouring the boiling water that marred his face, he couldn’t blame her after everything.

But he could blame his father, that bastard drove her to insanity, he drove her to hurt her son. All she wanted to do was stop her husband from abusing Todoroki but the man let his drive to birth the number one hero consume him. He was a disgrace, both father and hero alike. He respected nobody, and yearned for power, knocking down those in his path.

He said he wanted what was best for his son, he said that he cared for his child. As long as that child snatched the number one spot out from under All Might he cared, those who didn’t match his standards were considered worthless and left to their own devices. 

In a way, Todoroki was the lucky child, he got attention and private tutors, mountains of books and nutritional meals given to him at every opportunity. He was his father’s greatest achievement and greatest disappointment. 

That way didn’t suit the things Todoroki wanted, sure, he wanted more than anything to be a hero, saving people left and right, but under his father’s control it felt like every good deed he did was just fueling his father’s obsession. Every move he made wasn’t his own but his father pulling the strings that were wrapped and sunken into his skin like an enslaved puppet.

The bi haired teen was a puppet that embarrassingly had his own will, a puppet that aspired to be better than its controller. The thin strings around him would always cut through his flesh as he tried to move on his own accord, fighting the control that bound him in an endless cycle of misery. One day he’ll be able to snap the strings and grasp the freedom he desired before the threads cut his traitorous limbs off. He just knew it.

The class erupted into cheers and shook him back to reality, most of them, he noticed, were still fauning over Thirteen, which he could understand.

“Right,” Aizawa-Sensei began, shifting his weight to his opposite foot. “Now that’s that over-“ The man cut himself off and his eyes widened as the lights circling the USJ blew, shards of glass raining down as their only source of light became the natural light leaking in from the dome skylight on top of the facility.

Todoroki took a step backwards into a fighting stance, bringing his right arm up in front of his chest as frost coated his skin, ready for any threat that made itself known. 

The water spitting out of the fountain faltered as a dark purple swirl spun under the wall of water, a pale hand crawled out of the void, pulling the edge of the purple mist till it was the size of All Might himself. A slouching man with blue hair in oily clumps stepped out of the portal first, followed by his companions, all varying in different sizes and mutations.

“Stay together and don’t move!” Their scruffy teacher yelled at his class, pulling at his scarf wrapped lazily around his neck. “Thirteen, protect the students.” He instructed, the astronaut ushering the group of students back to the doors.

Todoroki’s red haired classmate- Kirishima, he reminded himself, took a courageous step forward and knocked his knuckles together. “Has the training already started?” He asked, gearing up for a fight.

The bi haired teen smacked his hand against his forehead with a groan as another one of his classmates spoke up with a “I thought we were rescuing people.”

Todoroki shook his head, trying to focus on the situation at hand, he surveyed the group that came out of the portal, noting down any weaknesses he could infer into his mind.

Aizawa-Sensei pulled his golden goggles up from around his neck, quickly adjusting them. “This is real.” He stated, “Those are villains.” He shot off down the stairs, landing on as many heads as he could before flinging his support weapon at the villains.

Life really hated him, didn’t it.

* * *

The drop was only five feet, but his entire body sounded the alarms, screaming that he was in pain and he sure felt it. Tears threatened to fall as he pushed himself to his feet, slowly as if he was an old man. God, if only his father could lay off.

Todoroki dusted his hands off on his pants, taking in the broken buildings lodged into the ground. Okay, so he was in the landslide zone, but why-

An abrupt scream came from behind him and Todoroki whipped his head around, leaning backwards to dodge the oncoming blade. The man, whose arms were giant blades, shot at the teen again, only to get frozen in place.

He could hear the ground crunching behind him and something kicking at him in his peripheral, fast. He dropped into a crouch and swept his leg in a circle around him, his own leg catching on the person’s foot and pulling them off balance. They fell to the ground and the boy called to his right side once more.

Villain after villian lunged at him, each thinking they could manage to land a hit, but all of them ended up being encased in ice after their futile attempts.

Todoroki let out a sigh after all his attackers were dealt with, breath fogging you in the air. UA was supposed to be the best school in all of Japan, how could this have happened? It didn’t seem possible for a real life villain attack to happen within one of their school trips, but this didn’t seem like a logical ruse built by Aizawa-Sensei.

The teen pivoted on his heel as he heard a high pitched scream for help coming from over the ridge, he shot off in the direction it came from, as an aspiring hero he was never one to ignore a cry for help.

As he slid down the other side of the ridge and peered out onto the sea of water he could see three students trapped on the ship, Mineta screaming his head off. Oh.

While Todoroki didn’t particularly like Mineta or the kid’s entire existence, leaving him to die on a boat, surrounded by villains along with his other two classmates seemed unfair. Midoriya and Asui deserve more than to die with the pathetic likes of him.

He ran to the edge of the water as the boat split in half, the temperature around his right side grew colder as he called to his ice. All he needed to do was freeze the entire body of water, easy. He could stop the villains where they swam and save his classmates all in one.

Before his quirk even touched the water, his eyes got caught on Midoriya as the boy stood up with determination written all over his face, the sun hitting him from the skylight dome gave him a halo of light. He looked cute like that, his face hadn’t lost all of it’s baby fat and it gave him a look of innocence.

Wait what-

Todoroki sputtered backwards as he was suddenly drenched in water, mouth agape as his hair hung in his face. A scoff left his lips and he whipped his head up to find the criminal responsible, but no one was there. 

His classmates were still on the sinking boat and all the villains in the surrounding area were either in the water or already encased in ice. There wasn’t anybody around to create a tidal wave big enough that could douse him in so much liquid.

Todoroki pushed his bangs back and stared around at the sky above him, looking for some kind of explanation, he couldn’t have entered the Windstorm zone accidentally, right?

The boy stumbled backwards and to the ground as another blast of water hit him. “Ah, fuck, I can believe you’ve done this.” He muttered to himself, wincing at how sore his body was as he pushed himself to his feet.

When he lifted his head he was met with a small spray of water hitting him directly in the face. The teen simply wiped the water off of his face with a swipe of his hand and glared at the indoor pool, silently cursing at it to hell and back.

He nudged the surface with his foot, carefully observing its reaction. The water just rippled like any water would do, fading away as the rings stretched out.

Huh. So it was just like any other water.

A scream caused him to jerk his head up and stare off in the direction of the boat, waves started crashing against it, tipping it closer and closer to its side. Shit.

Todoroki leapt onto the water, freezing the surface underneath his feet before taking off across the water on a trail of ice. His shoes worked beautifully, the spikes on the bottoms dug into the ice and helped him regain his balance.

Waves grew larger in size as the bi haired teen made his way across, it rocked the boat dangerously back and forth.

The hero in training was almost across until a wave shook his ice, breaking it into chunks and sending him riding the wave. The ice board he stood on had him wobbling and jerking his body around just to keep himself upright. As the wave faded out and another one approached from behind, it knocked the teen off the ice chunk and into the water’s grasp.

Todoroki luckily sucked in a gasp of air before he was consumed by the liquid, arms and legs kicking as soon as he could right himself in the water, swimming towards the surface. Another gasp left him as he broke the surface and selfishly filled his lungs with as much air as he could. 

His head was shoved underneath the water as another wave rolled by him, pulling him under into the depths. He kicked and swam harder, air quickly leaving him as his body complained with every kick. He reached his hand out as he approached the surface once more, relief filling him as his hand met with the cold air above.

The teen popped his head out from the water once more, taking deep breaths of the wonderful air. He eyed the ship and the villains surrounding it, all struggling to stay above water like he was. Another wave came towering over him and Todoroki took one last deep breath and dove below.

If it wasn’t the villains or his classmates, who sounded surprised at the sudden waves, then who could be behind it? Whoever it was, he needed to eliminate the threat as fast as he could.

A theory ran through his mind but the boy didn’t want to even acknowledge it, he didn’t want it to be true. Putting his objections to the side for one moment, he let himself entertain the thought that maybe, just maybe it was a Clow card. It did make sense, the cards were magical and had abilities beyond his knowledge. Quirks could only do and explain so much, but the Clow cards were another playing field, they didn’t require a person around to control them when on the loose.

The problem was that Kero wasn’t here, without his help or knowledge Todoroki wouldn’t know which card was causing the mayhem or how exactly to capture it. The teen was left to his own devices and forced to guess how to capture the card who he didn’t even know where it was. Great, just great.

Todoroki deeply regretted not bringing the two Clow cards he acquired, he left them in his locker, safely tucked in his school bag for he didn’t think he would ever need them on a school trip. Lesson learned.

He swam to the surface for another breath of air before diving below the next wave. He needed to locate the card first. There was no giant bird circling overhead or a rabbit bouncing around, so this card was hiding, it didn’t require being in sight for it to use its power. If it wasn’t on land or overhead then that only left one more place for it to be.

Todoroki broke the surface for another breath of air before diving back down, this time swimming to the bottom of the pool. 

The pressure felt like it was squeezing his head and the air out of his lungs but he kept diving, arms wearing out with exhaustion. As he neared the bottom of the pool he could spot what looked like a transparent sheet of paper waving back and forth underwater, if it wasn’t for it’s lighter coloured appearance he never would have spotted it.

The bi haired teen reached down his shirt and pulled out his necklace, giving it a sharp tug that tore it off from around his neck. 

Unable to speak under the mountain of water, Todoroki ran through the words in his head. _‘Key which hides the power of the dark, reveal your true nature to me. I, Todoroki Shouto, command you under our contract, release!’_

The key rose out of his palm, spinning rapidly in circles before giving off a bright light. Todoroki snatched the staff as soon as it transformed and brought it above his head, bringing it down at the card as fast as he could in the water. 

_‘Return to your original form, CLOW CARD!’_

The transparent paper melted and swirled in a circle around the head of the staff, slowly forming a red and golden card from bottom up. The water swirled around him before stopping once the capture was complete.

The pounding sensation in his head was thanking all the gods that it was finally over, his air supply was on its last legs. Todoroki paddled his limbs but the surface never looked closer. The teen’s vision had black creeping in from the out edges, fuck.

He wouldn’t make it in time, he knew this, not before he ran out of oxygen. His ice wouldn’t be any help in this situation, only weighing him down, his staff wasn’t offering any assistance either. 

He recalled what happened to him at the water’s edge, the card was playing with him, manipulating the water and blasting him with it. If it had that much control maybe it could get him out of here.

Deciding to give it a shot Todoroki brought the head of the staff down onto the card, screaming a mantra of _‘I need your help, please!’_ in his mind, hoping the card could hear his plea. _‘Get me out of here!’_

The card shimmered before melting into the water, a spiral forming beneath his feet, boosting him up through the water. He broke the surface and immediately sucked in the air, taking in as much as he could. The card was still active and held him above the water, to any outsider it would have looked like the bi haired teen had mastered the art of walking on water.

“Thank you.” Todoroki said, still breathing heavily. “Uh, would you be able to take me to the edge please?” He nearly let out an undignified squawk as the water beneath him suddenly started moving, obeying his request.

The teen jumped off of whatever platform the card had created and landed with a grunt on land. He spun around and was met with the card transformed back and hovering in the air like a puppy wagging its tail.

“Thank you.” The teen said again, taking the card from its place in the air. The red and gold card read ‘The Wave’, its image was a small wave at an angle across the space.

Todoroki tucked the card into his pocket as his hand tingled, the card showing its excitement perhaps?

A loud thud echoing through the facility caught his attention, he was quick to berate himself. He was in the middle of a goddamn villain attack, there was no time to waste!

The hero in training ran around the sea of water and towards the plaza where he could see some of his classmates and a large black creature over his teacher. Oh no.

* * *

That stupid kid, who did he think he was anyways? All Kero wanted to do was help, but no, the kid thought too high and mighty of himself. I’m tOdOrOkI sHoUtO and I’m a spoiled brat who doesn’t need peasant fRiEnDs. That little shit.

Kero huffed as he flew down yet again another street. Just when he thought finding the exit to that school was hard enough, finding his way home was on a whole ‘nother level.

And what happened with his mother that made the topic so sensitive? He bet she would have loved to know that her son was out making friends nonetheless and not being a royal pain in the ass. Oh, _oh_ , maybe she’s dead.

No, that couldn’t be it, right? Oh no, what if it was! Sure the kid was rude and emotionally constipated, but no one really deserved being sarcastically told that their dead mom must be so proud, that would explain why the boy told him not to come home.

Speaking of which, the plush finally spotted the large traditional house at the end of the street. The kid’s father must be loaded, rude, but loaded. God, with that amount of money imagine how many custard puddings that could buy!

It was strange though, Shouto always seemed so on edge within that house, like something lurking in the shadows was going to strike. Ha, if only, that would mean another Clow card for them to capture. The teen walked with quiet steps and had shoved him into a closet once his father came home last night. The kid was hella weird.

Now Kero couldn’t necessarily be called the sharpest knife in the drawer but he knew there was something very wrong going on. Shouto came back with harsh injuries last night, brushing off any and all his questions. The plush had stayed up for hours wracking his brain for some sort of answer like maybe the kid fell in the shower while singing and was so embarrassed that he couldn’t even show his face to the bear.

When Kero mentioned last night and his father teaching Shouto a lesson, it had just slipped out without thought. It wasn’t even a possibility the bear had even considered, but it was one that explained a lot, one that he hated to even think about.

Kero was the one who needed to apologize as well, wasn’t he.

* * *

“How many would you like?” The girl asked, putting a tray of cookies off to the side.

Todoroki wordlessly handed over a 1,000 yen note to the girl and shoved his hands into his pocket as she took off and got him his money’s worth.

He glanced around the bakery, picking up and poking some of the different treats out on display. He wasn’t too big on sweets, but he did enjoy the occasional cheat in his diet. The teen put the bag of cookies back on the shelf as the staff member finished packing up his order.

“Here you are!” She cheerfully said, sliding the box over the counter to the boy.

“Thank you.” Todoroki murmured, nodding his head and taking the box into his arms, spinning on his heel and exiting the wonderful scented bakery.

The rest of his anger was taken out on the rest of the villains he encountered during the USJ field trip, now replaced with pure exhaustion instead. They were given two days off by the school, meaning the tired Todoroki had two days of nonstop training in his near future. Hallelujah.

“Fuck me sideways with a chainsaw.” He muttered to himself, shoes patting down the sidewalk. A cat peered out from the alley, running to brush against his left side before zipping back to where it came from.

It’s not like he absolutely hated training, he was getting stronger which was what was needed in order to be a hero, but he despised the way his father did things. He knew in his mind that training was good, but sometimes just the word set his nerves off. 

It sort of felt like how he felt about cats. The creatures were adorable and he wouldn’t mind being allowed to take one of them into his home, but after one too many events of being clawed and hissed at could change a person’s perspective and eventually the association with cats could become fear.

The teen pushed open the front gate, bumping it closed with his hip. Hopefully Kero would accept his peace offering and let the whole friends situation drop. 

“I’m home.” He called, sliding the front door closed behind him. Silence greeted him, a safe sign. The teen slipped off his shoes and started down the hall to his room, watching out for the creaking boards just in case.

The halls were always cold and bare, pictures and frames lay locked away or burned within the trash. It was a lifeless house, one that he couldn’t bear to be within, but the magic of the Clow cards played a happy game that the child in him could enjoy, it made life a little bearable. 

“Kero?” Todoroki slid open the door to his room, balancing the box in one hand. “Are you here? Look, I’m s-“ the sound of soft snores coming from his futon stopped him where he stood. The small plush was sleeping soundly, tucked under the covers and drooling onto the pillow.

The hero in training rested the box of desserts onto his desk, gently plopping his school bag onto the tatami mat below. He crossed the room with soft steps, climbing onto the windowsill and pulled out his phone from his pocket without a second thought.

* * *

Icyhot (@Icyhot)

Who’s ready for another theory?

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought OwO!
> 
> The Wave card is able to control water and make tidal waves, but cannot create water like the Watery card can.
> 
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	3. Grocery mishap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fight fight fight!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it’s been so long for this chapter to come out, things have been hectic owo;;

Todoroki woke up not only to the taste of sleep in his mouth, but a crick in the neck as well. What a wonderful morning. 

The teen let himself roll off the windowsill and onto the tatami mats below, earning a loud thump in return. His body ached from the previous training lesson but he found it in himself to thank the gods for the blessing that was his father leaving him alone last night. 

He pushed himself up onto his feet, scanning the bed for signs of the plush. The blankets were ruffled and tossed every which way, no doubt the work of the careless bear, the freeloader nowhere to be found.

A small snore caught his attention, bringing his gaze over to the box of treats he left on his desk. The cover was ajar as soft snores escaped from within it. Todoroki walked closer and peaked through the clear, plastic screen on the top, catching sight of the sleeping bear inside, every single treat within missing.

At least the custard puddings didn’t go to waste. He was going to put the box in the fridge if Kero didn’t wake up in time to eat but it slipped his mind as sleep wrapped its arms around him and pulled him into its clutches once more. He had a strange dream, but upon waking up every memory or trace of it seemed to vanish, not that it really mattered though, it was just a dream.

“Kero.” He held the cover open with one hand and nudged the resting plush. “It’s time to wake up.” The bear stirred with every nudge but refused to wake up.

Todoroki simply let out a long, strained sigh before digging through his closet for a pair of sweats and a tshirt, switching out of his school uniform from the other day. He pulled the shirt over his head and down till it covered him, crossing the room once more he grabbed the box that now lacked any snacks and silently let his feet carry him to the kitchen.

He placed the box down in the sink, resting his elbows on the counter and his hand hovered dangerously over the cold water tap. “Wakey wakey.” The boy deadpanned, turning the tap on full blast without hesitation.

The bear started awake, sputtering before using his wings to zip out from under the stream of water. “What the hell was that for?!” The bear cried, getting in his face and mimicking rolling up his sleeve.

Okay, so maybe he was still a bit angry over their fight, but could you blame him? While he himself wasn’t the most pleasurable person to be around then, Kero had hit plenty of nerves and Todoroki would be damned if he let him bypass freely without paying the price.

“I thought about what you said.” Todoroki started, hoping to divert the conversation away from his previous action that brought a bit of joy into his dead soul. Kero gave him a confused look but his expression was curious enough that the teen went on. “I shouldn’t have been that rude to Aoyama, I apologize not only for that but how I reacted towards you.” He sighed, letting his gaze embarrassingly fall as Kero took in his words.

The plush rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish expression not written on their face. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have said the things I did. I still think you were an ass, but I overstepped a line, I’m sorry.”

Todoroki quickly shook the weak feeling out from his body and poked Kero in the center of his forehead. “I feel like you’re only apologizing because I came back with treats.” He accused, spinning on his heel and tossing the soggy cardboard into the recycle.

“What can I say,” Kero laughed, licking his lips and rubbing his plush belly. “I consider it payment for putting up with you.”

Todoroki rolled his eyes and refrained from loudly groaning and banging his head into the wall, instead grabbing another box of cereal and heading back towards his room. 

The bi haired teen snatched his phone from its place on the windowsill and plopped down onto his futon, scanning through the latest news.

“Anything interesting?” Kero asked, peering over his shoulder at the device.

“Depends on the person.” Was his answer as he scrolled down the page, quickly scanning the headlines for anything that sparked an interest. _Seven injured_ caught his attention. He clicked on the article and read through the paragraphs, explaining to Kero as the information was filed into his head. “Apparently there’s a female assilent that is attacking people late at night over by the river, seven people have already been injured and police are looking for her.”

Kero hummed in response, rubbing his chin in thought. “I bet I could take her in a fight.” 

“By all means,” Todoroki muttered between handfuls of cereal as he skimmed through the rest of the article, “get your ass handed to you, I couldn’t care less.”

“What did we just say about being rude, Shouto!” The plush exclaimed, puffing both his cheeks and chest out and shaking his head with disapproval.

“It’s Todoroki.” 

“Sure sure. Look kid, it’s going to be even harder to make friends at this rate” the plush sighed, flapping his wings and flying around the room in boredom. “Or a lover too.”

A chill ran down the bear’s spine as Todoroki sent icy glares at him. “Keep out of your business and maybe I won’t throw you out of the house.” He turned his phone off with a click, pushing himself to his feet and walking over to his school bag.

“I know friends aren’t your thing, but you’re gonna need some, brat.” Kero argued, a theory forming in his mind that Todoroki could in fact be a pushover in some sense.

Todoroki pulled out his clow cards from his bag, placing them on the desk for Kero to get a good look at. “The Fly, The Jump, and The Wave.” Three cards so far. He already managed to capture three cards and he felt beyond exhausted already. How many were there?

Kero landed on the desk, his feet patting on the ground before he sat down on the tabletop. “The Wave? Since when did you get that card?” He asked, trying to recall the event.

“At the USJ.” The teen replied, pulling out the chair and sitting down on its soft cushion. “It nearly drowned my classmates and I.” He picked up the Wave card, turning it around in his hand.

“Was everybody okay? Even that boy you were staring at in class?”

An idea formed in his mind, the fact that Wave was a prankster made him convinced he could get their help. He pulled the card closer to his lips, staring at Kero, never taking his eyes off of his target. “Wave.” He whispered, trying to communicate his wishes through his tone.

Thankfully the card came through and manipulated the water from the vase sitting on the table, a string of water flowing out of it and over Kero’s plush head. Within a blink of an eye the bear was once again covered in water. A small smile played on Todoroki’s lips as he hid it behind the card.

“Sorry, did you say something?” He asked, placing the card back down on the table and sending them a mental message of thanks.

Kero’s eyes twitched with annoyance as he tried to reign in his urge to scream at the other boy, instead taking a deep breath and choosing to try and hug Todoroki who was an expert at dodging the soaked bear.

* * *

“Remind me to donate you to a charity for some poor unfortunate kid before I ever take you shopping again.” Todoroki hissed, picking up speed as he walked down the sidewalk that would eventually lead him back home.

“I don’t know what you’re so mad about!” Kero whined, flying a few feet behind the bi haired teen. “I haven’t done anything wrong!”

The teen shot him a glare. Thankfully the streets weren’t as occupied this time of day as the moon started to rise, it allowed him to make Kero eat his dust as he sped off. 

Fuyumi had stopped by his room earlier as he finished up the last of his homework, Kero hiding behind the vase on the desk. She gave him a list of groceries for him to pick up from the store as she took the liberty of cleaning the main rooms of the house. He accepted the slip of paper and rushed through the last equation, hoping to get some fresh air in the moon's light before his next training session.

The ever annoying plush had decided on his own to accompany him, making the trip an absolute nightmare.

“Right, because singing Hamilton at the top of your lungs from my coat pocket didn’t attract bizarre looks or when I had my back turned for a mere second and half of the bakery desserts were gone, there couldn’t have been anything wrong with that, could there.”

Kero scoffed as he landed on Todoroki’s shoulder. “The first one was the results of you letting me use your phone as you did your homework, so you basically asked for it” he leaned back and stared up at the darkening sky, not looking guilty at all. “And who's to say that I was the reason half of the treats were gone?”

“When I turned around you had a mouthful of evidence against you.” Todoroki deadpanned, trying to brush the plush off of his shoulder. “You have wings, use them.”

Kero huffed, jumping over Todoroki’s hand as he tried batting him off again. “I’ve been meaning to ask, but what’s with everybody having magical powers?” The bear asked.

Todoroki gave him a bizarre look. “You mean quirks?” He gave up on trying to get Kero off of him as he switched paths to the shortcut through the park’s forest. “80% of the population has quirks, some sort of magical ability that varies between people. If you don’t know that, how long were you stuck in the book for?”

The bear pouted as he tried to think, mind thinking hard but drawing up blanks. “I don’t know. My master Clow Reed created and entrusted the protection of the cards to me so long ago, I can’t remember how long it’s been since he..” the plush trailed off, head hanging low.

Todoroki bit his tongue, unsure of how to proceed. He didn’t mind silences and not having to communicate, but gloomy atmospheres like this dripped an awkwardness that the young hero didn’t know how to conquer.

The two walked down the path in silence, only the sound being the crunches and scrapes below Todoroki’s shoe filling the still air. The leaves rustled from their perch on their respective branches as the cold gust of wind blew through them, giving the night air a nippy feel.

“What's your quirk?” Kero finally asked, breaking the silence that encased the both of them. “I think I saw it when you captured Fly, it’s ice, right?”

The teen nodded his head, brushing the hair stabbing into his eyes while holding back a recoil of disgust at the mention of his quirk, or rather the other unmentioned half of his power. “Yes, both fire and ice.” He raised his right hand, groceries clashing together from the movement on their place along his forearm. Frost slowly crept along the palm of his hand as he activated his quirk. 

Kero jumped up onto his feet from his spot on Todoroki's shoulder, excitement replacing any previous despair. “Fire too? You gotta show me!” He exclaimed, waiting in anticipation.

The teenager let his hand fall back down to his side, a sour frown taking its place on his face once more. “I don’t use his quirk; fire.”

The plush mumbled to himself in thought, confused on the sudden change in attitude but taking it in stride to try and change the subject. “So you got your ice from your mother?”

A gentle smile filled his memory, a soft hand combing through his hair. “I did.” He confirmed.

White hair pulled back into a bun as she stirred and prepared dinner, children grabbing and yanking on her skirt to get their mother’s attention, it was a warm memory. The way his mother sang him to sleep after the constant never ending nightmares that woke him up screaming, it was the most calming sound he ever heard, bringing peace to him even years after. The whistle of the kettle and heat that covered the left half of his face was the most prominent memory of his mother, the only moment in his life that he could recall the look in her eyes; fear.

“Where is she? I haven’t seen her in the house.”

Phantom pains stung around his eye, his hand coming up to cover it instinctively. “We don’t talk about her.” He hissed, trying to get the plush to drop the subject. Even if they were forced back into an awkward silence, it was a necessary evil compared to the conversation Kero tried to start.

The bear lowered his voice to a whisper, trying to pry at least some information out of the boy. “Why not?” The plush pushed off his shoulder and hovered in the air as Todoroki took another swipe to get him off. “Hey! Watch it!”

He rolled his eyes in response, adjusting the bags hanging off of his arms. He kept his mouth closed and turned his head away from the flying animal, pissing the plush off.

“Don’t start giving me the silent treatment!” He yelled, flying around to the front of the high schooler, forcing him to stop in his tracks. “I saw that eye roll you little brat!”

Todoroki raised his hand to try and push Kero out of the way, immediately pulling his hand back to his chest as the angry plush tried chomping down on his fingers. “Way to try and bite the hand that feeds you-“

A lightbulb suddenly went off in the yellow bear’s mind. “The Fight!” He exclaimed, waving his hands around like he had made the discovery of the century.

“Yes, that’s what we are doing, fighting.” The bi haired teen sighed, hanging his head in utter exhaustion. “It seems to be a trend.”

Kero nearly smacked the boy on the head, but refrained. “Not that!” He yelled, flying out of Todoroki’s face and and sitting crossed legged in the air. “Do you remember the news article you were talking about this morning of a female assailant who has already injured people?” The teen nodded in response, remembering that conversation from earlier in the morning. “I think it might be the Clow Card, Fight.”

“Fight?” Todoroki repeated, looking close to smacking his face against one of the nearest trees. “Pretty self explanatory I suppose, but are they a high level card?”

The plush nodded his head, “Yes, it’s going to be harder than catching a card like Fly who is less fierce.”

The high schooler gave him a bewildered look. “Harder than the card that looked like I was an option on a KFC menu? Like they were going to use my bones as a toothpick?” He felt like he was going to go crazy in this wacky, unpredictable path he dejectedly signed himself up for. What was next, dinosaurs being revived and preparing to feast on the entire city? With the Clow Cards, it didn’t seem that out of reach.

“That’s the one, but the Fight is able to crush you and your bones like cracking the shell of a crab with a practiced finesse.”

“If it were a guy I’d probably be into it but what the hell.” Todoroki joked as the lack of proper sleep started to loosen his tongue. He let out a strained sigh, letting his head fall back as he called to the sky.

A big smile found its place on Kero’s face. “A guy like Midoriya?” He asked, nudging the teen in the shoulder.

“It. Was. A. Joke.” He stressed, close to throwing hands with the bear that brought all this bullshit into his life. “What is your obsession with him anyways?”

“An accurate joke.” The plush whispered to himself, flinching when Todoroki let out a low growl. Oops, so he heard that. “Look, you were staring at him in class and he’s the class’s lil ray of sunshine while you’re...uh.”

The teen raised his eyebrow in challenge, egging the bear on to finish what he was going to say. “I’m..?”

The bear started to sweat, hands shaking nervously. “The point is!” He quickly ran on. “Friending or getting together with the resident personification of happiness within class 1A would be good for you!”

“Friends aren’t my thing, we’ve talked about this.”

“You’ve made that very clear and I’ve elected to ignore it so-“

“Kero!” Todoroki glared, frost crawling up his right cheek. They already had this talk, how thick was Kero’s skull that he couldn’t understand or respect the boy’s wishes. He didn’t need anybody, he was perfectly fine on his own. He pushed by the plush and made his way down the path once more. “Drop it.”

“Yeah yeah, look kid-“ Kero sighed, waving his hand about before he was cut off by Todoroki stopping in his tracks. He quickly rounded the teen, concern scribbled on his face as he tried to figure out what was wrong. Did he go to far? Was the kid beyond pissed now? Was this the end for the bear?

The boy looked distracted, his head whipping around as if looking for his target or enemy. Kero hovered over his head, copying the boy below.

“What’s going on?” The plush asked, carefully eyeing every branch and leaf that entered his vision.

The teen tried swallowing his nerves, his grip on the groceries tightening. “It’s just a weird feeling, but..something is off.” He admitted, slowly forcing himself back into a walk. The sooner they got home the better. 

Kero hesitantly nodded his head and followed behind, his eyes never leaving their surroundings. He trusted the teen’s judgment, he was in a class for shaping heroes so perhaps he had a sixth sense for danger.

The two continued their walk in the park, fear coating their every movement and flooding their every breath. Every ray the sun had provided was gone now, darkness creeping in every corner. Whether it was paranoia or something creeping around in the shadows, this time of night was always the most dangerous in playing into fear and reality.

Kero knew that not only was crime more common with the darkened night, but the Clow Cards too found more comfort in playing around in the shadows, some of their power stronger under the moon’s care.

Todoroki never particularly hated the night, the dark cover sometimes brought him a type of comfort to him. The cool air was always a pleasant feeling after a training session with his father, it helped calm his racing heart down and made sure the ice he applied to his injuries never melted quite as quickly.

This night was different. All the monsters and creatures that his mind told him were lurking close, it was increased tenfold as this strange feeling made its home inside the center of his chest. He felt uneasy and unsure, just what was out there watching him as he attempted to peacefully walk home with an armful of groceries.

There was a rustle in the bushes off to his left and he whipped his head around to face the noise. Thankfully nothing greeted him, only the flapping of Kero’s wings and the howl of the wind as it whistled by his ears. 

His nerves never reach a low, even as no beast came barreling through the tree line, ready to tear him limb from limb. There was a slight pull in his chest, as if some sort of guide was controlling this stressful feeling that plagued his body. It felt familiar in a way that he couldn’t quite explain, like there was some sort of link within this pull that he knew, that he’s seen before.

Kero let out a small gasp from above him, his almost casual glancing around turning frantic. “Hey, kid, this is a-“

There was a howl in the wind that the teen didn’t recognize, a movement that wasn’t there before. The feeling in his chest pulled at his anticipation, turning the level up to unbearable. Without thinking he leapt back, the fear in his chest guiding him.

A girl in blue came from above and slammed her fist into the concrete below where he just stood, cracking the surface into pieces. She whirled her head around, eyes locked on to his figure. She lunged at him, pulling her arm back and preparing to land a well powered blow.

“Watch out!” Kero practically screeched, pushing the teen out of the way of the girl’s fist. The two stumbled to the side as the girl swung her leg out at the teen’s head, his only saving grace being the countless hours of training his father put him through that allowed him to lean backwards underneath the swipe.

Todoroki leapt back and positioned his right arm in front of his chest, ready at a moment’s notice to call to his ice. “Who are you.” He demanded, but the girl never uttered a word, only falling into a fighting stance.

“It’s the Fight card!” His companion plush supplied. “Don’t let her land a hit or you’ll be feeling it even days after you’re dead!” The bear hovered by his side and bared his teeth. The Fight wasn’t an easy card to capture, it was a strong card that could overpower just about any person.

“Thanks for the pep talk.” Todoroki replied, watching the card like a hawk. He crossed his arms across each other as the girl leapt into action, swinging her fist once more. The teen activated his right side, coating both his arms in ice, breaking them apart as she neared 10 feet away and rapidly closing the distance.

Todoroki blocked the punch with his forearm, quickly adjusting to compensate for the next hitting closing in on his face. The teen was slowly being pushed back as he tried to block each punch the Fight threw at him, her attacks almost instantly shattering his ice.

Going off of the defensive as the last of his protection broke off, the bi haired teen snatched her wrist with the next punch, pulling it off to the side and sliding his back in front of her, effectively throwing her over his shoulder and to the ground.

The card was quick to recover, rolling on her back and pushing off with her hands, suddenly back on her feet within seconds. She gave Todoroki no time to rest and was back into action, throwing punches, kicks, and jabs, anything that would hit its mark.

Todoroki had no time to pull the move he did before, his only option was to dodge every attack and look for an opening. The card was quick and didn’t seem to have a limited stamina, her pursuits never faultering. He needed a breather, just one second to let him- he messed up, falling for one of her fake jabs, leaving himself wide open.

The card’s leg collided with his side, immediately forcing all the air out of his lungs at the strength of the attack. He could hear Kero scream his name as he collapsed to the ground with a pained grunt, arm coiled around his side. If nothing was broken then surely there would be a very noticeable bruise in his near future.

The plush was by his side in an instant, hand resting on his shoulder as he tried to gadge how injured the new Card Captor was. The bear turned to face the card, fists ready in front of him as he prepared to protect his companion.

Todoroki almost felt lucky, not only was Kero trying to help him, but he didn’t have to deal with punches or kicks like _that_ on a daily basis. Every breath he took was pained, the injury on his side forcing his exhausted body to take short deep breaths unless he wanted shocks of pain running down his side.

They needed to get out of here. Even after years of training sessions, the teen had never had to face off against something so powerful, it hurt. He couldn’t get back up to fight, he felt like he was five all over again, crying in his mother’s arms about how he hated training and all the pain inflicted upon him. He felt unbelievably weak.

Mustering up all his strength he propped himself up on his elbow, letting his hand close around the necklace’s charm around his neck, giving it a sharp tug. “Key which hides the power of the dark.” He whispered to himself through gritted teeth. “Reveal your true nature to me. I, Todoroki Shouto, command you under our contract, release!”

The charm whirled in his hand before transforming into his staff, comfortably resting in the palm of his hand. He carefully leaned to the side, sliding his hand into his pocket and pulling out one of his cards.

“Fly.” He pleaded. “Help us get out of here.” The teen tossed the card up into the air before swinging his staff to meet up with it, a bright light shone from the two before two pairs of beautiful wings were added to the end of his staff. 

The Fly helped pull him to his feet as Kero argued with the Fight, they had no time for that though. Todoroki swung his leg over the staff, sitting down with a tight grip before snatching Kero out of the air and pulling up on the staff, taking them soaring into the night sky.

“Good call.” Was the first thing out of the bears mouth, sounding authentic. “I don’t think we would have lasted a minute longer.

“Mm.” Todoroki hummed in agreement, trying to hide just how much discomfort he was in. He quickly felt embarrassed, he was supposed to be built for combat and had been chosen for this role as the Card Captor, and yet he couldn’t do any of it. He was pathetic. “I’m sorry.” He murmured, the apology never reaching the plush’s ears.

“Hey!” Kero exclaimed, bumping into Todoroki’s shoulder and pointing to his left. “That’s Windy!”

The boy turned to look, spotting a white and golden figure in the distance, flying high above the city. Their hair flowing elegantly behind them as their delicate wings were spread out from their attachment at their shoulders.

Wait, he knew them. Not only their appearance but the name too, but where.. The memory of that day came flooding back to him, the day he officially became the Card Captor, whether he wanted the title or not. Windy was the first card on the top of the pile inside of that fake book, now he recognized his mistake. Once he read her name he activated her power, causing all this chaos to happen, he really did cause all of this.

The pain in his side burned, begging him to lay down and refrain from moving for at least half a century. God, another card, what luck.

“I don’t- I _can’t_ take on another card right now.” He croaked, head falling down as disappointment in himself flowed freely through his veins. If his father could see him right now he’d surely make sure that Todoroki understood just how much he fucked up.

Kero quickly came to his aid. “Hey hey hey, calm down, don’t worry kid.” The plush gently patted his shoulder, understanding where his hesitation and came from. “Windy is one of the most gentlest cards, I doubt you’ll have to fight her like you have the others.”

A twinge of relief was sparked in his chest, but how much of what Kero said was an 100% guarantee? The cards were always unpredictable, playing by their own rules and magical ability. He couldn’t match up to them, couldn’t reach the skill or power they held within their grasp. He was useless in comparison.

A gust of wind nearly blew him off of his staff, but quickly adjusting his grip was his saviour, he hunkered down till it toned down to a gentle breeze. He couldn’t open his eyes, he wasn’t ready for another failure attempt, he already knew that he was amounting to nothing, wasn’t that enough?

“Shouto.” Kero murmured, the teen almost correcting him before he continued on. “Look, I think she wants to help you.”

Taking a slow deep breath so as to not disturb his injury, he slowly peeked out from underneath his bangs, a soft smile greeting him. “Uh, hi?” 

Windy never spoke, the cards never did, but she nodded her head and outstretched her hands, as if asking for something. The plush companion of his elbowed him in his unbruised side, was he missing something?

The card carefully moved forward, like he was a wild animal that would run off at a moments notice. Her arms slowly wrapped around his body, head resting on his shoulder as she emitted a warmth. 

Tears pricked at his eyes, this feeling was something that was laid within his memories, the good ones, where his mother held him, promises spilling out that she would protect him. Her hugs were always soft, always careful and leaving an escape for him if he wanted it. It was never harsh and strangling, like some people’s tended to be. He wasn’t big on hugs, he rarely got them, they weren’t wanted, but this truly made him feel like he was sent back in time. His side ached like it had that first training session, his mother’s arms holding him tight, whispering confirmations that everything would be okay. He was five again and incredibly weak.

No, _no_. This wasn’t the time or place. He was Todoroki Shouto, 15 years old, and the key to his father finally beating All Might. He couldn’t, _wasn’t_ weak anymore. Sure he made mistakes, but he was still the same person underneath it all. Pathetic, but not weak.

He pulled out of Windy’s hold, eyes narrowed as he prepared to tell her off. “I-“ But the card placed a finger over his lips, effectively cutting him off. She shook her head before she melted into whisps and swirled around in the space in front of Todoroki before a red and golden card fluttered down into his hand. The Windy, it read.

“She can sense your emotions.” Kero informed him, nodding his head along as he recalled information about the card. “She’s always been the gentle, mother-like figure out of all the cards.”

The teen’s grip tightened on the card. “There’s no emotions for her to sense.” He growled out through gritted teeth, feeling too much like an open book for his comfort level to handle.

Thankfully Kero kept his mouth shut, choosing to stay silent for the rest of their ride home, only offering assistance when they dropped down in front of his house, hovering over him as he pushed open the front gate and wobbled over to the front door.

“I’m home.” He croaked, watching as Kero dove into one of the plants patiently waiting by the front door.

He heard footsteps silently pattering down the hall, followed by a small high pitched gasp as his sister caught sight of his hunched body leaning up against the wall.

“What happened?” She immediately questioned him, scanning him over for any and all injuries, taking note of his scuffled clothing.

“Nothing.” He answered, pushing himself off the wall and trying to make it on his own down the hall back to the comfort of his own room. His sister didn’t buy the blainly obvious lie though.

“Shouto,” She mumbled, taking his arm in her own. “Please, what happened?” The preschool teacher helped her little brother down the hall, making sure to take most of the weight off his injured form.

Todoroki sighed, wincing as his side complained with the action. “Fell.” He muttered, struggling to push his sister and her help away.

The girl pursed her lips, but thankfully didn’t say anything else, simply helping him past the barrier of his room and onto his futon the was speckled with drops of dried blood. “I’ll make sure father leaves you alone tonight.” She whispered, more to herself than anyone else.

“Fuyumi..” He started but let his argument trail off as his sister shook her head. 

The two never said anymore, Fuyumi making sure he was safely tucked in bed and had everything he could possibly need, a promise to check in on him through the night silently hung in the air.

Todoroki barely noticed when Kero returned to his room, the weight of his eyes becoming too heavy for him to stay conscious. His body felt like he was laying on clouds, soft, welcoming puffs held high above in the air. Sleep slowly pulled him further into its grasp, his mind wandering no more as a night of dreams came to him again.

“Goodnight, Shouto.”

* * *

The cold breeze rustled his hair as it blew by, the night sky holding its chill as stars hid themselves away. The city lights shone as the people within bustled around, chatting idly between themselves, unknowing.

Todoroki let out a breath, watching as it fogged up in the cold air. His grip on his staff tightened as he used his other hand to brush the stray stands away from his face, the staff’s crystal elements glowing a soft hue. He needed to be focused, ready for what was to come. But what was coming?

He caught a glimpse of his sleeve as he brushed his hair back, confusion running through his mind as he tried to figure out why he was wearing such a garb at this time. 

Something caught his attention, dragging his gaze away from his clothes and to the Clow Cards raining down from the starless sky. Their coating shined off of the city lights as they fluttered harmlessly down. Panic ran through the teen and he quickly tried to pluck the cards out of the air, missing each and everyone of them as they harmlessly fluttered by.

Kero hovered by his side, unworried as he stared out at the building before them. Todoroki almost teetered off the edge trying to catch the cards but managed to regain his balance and stare out at the scene as well. The building blurred in his vision, but it struck a familiar feeling within his chest, he knew this place even if he couldn’t see it. 

The moon peeked out from behind the building as Todoroki spun his staff between his fingers, hand outstretched as a card fell into his awaiting palm facedown. “Which will you be?”

* * *

The teen shoveled down another handful of cereal before washing it down with a sip of water. His side wasn’t aching as much as last night, but he still was cautious not to put too much strain on any muscles around there, sticking to laying in bed and only getting up for the necessities.

“You said you had a dream?” Kero asked, pulling the cards out from Todoroki’s pocket by using his magic, a bright yellow hue surrounding the cards.

The bi haired boy let out a pained sigh. The plush had been trying to make sure the teen was okay all morning with an endless amount of irritating questions, only recently giving up but still pushing on having a conversation when all Todoroki wanted to do was lay in wait for death. Was that too much to ask?

“Yes, I can’t remember any of it though.” He answered honestly. While he never had too much of a struggle to remember his dreams of constant nightmares, these recent dreams of his escaped him like it was water, freely flowing away from his grasp.

Kero clicked his tongue in his mouth in dissatisfaction. “What help you are.” He teased, shoulders shaking with his slight laugh. 

“Piss off.”

“Hey!” The bear exclaimed, legs falling out of their crossed position as worry claimed him. “You forgot to write your name on the Windy last night!” Kero hurriedly pulled at the boy’s sleeve, trying to get him on the move.

With a resigned groan Todoroki helped pick himself up and stumbled over to the desk, plucking a pen from his cup of writing utensils and choosing the card that was still floating in the air by Kero’s power. 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it.” He muttered with no real anger behind his words, just a bone deep tiredness that seeped into every pore. “Why do I have to write my name on them again?” He yawned, picking the other cards out of the air and laying them in a neat pile on top of his desk.

Kero looked close to smacking his head into the wall. “I’ve told you, it’s to mark you as their master.” The plush landed on the desk and watched over the cards. “Without someone as their master their power will run rampid, bringing chaos to the city like they’re already doing.” He explained, praying that the half asleep teen would finally remember.

“Ah, okay.” Todoroki replied, crossing the room over to his closet and picking out a fresh pair of clothes for the day.

The plush went on as the teen changed. “But now since you’ve taken up the job their power will be contained, not to mention they’ll be happier with you as their master.”

Todoroki hummed as he pulled his shirt over his head. “I think I’d rather just be their... friend to be honest.” He admitted, hesitant on the word.

Kero almost knocked over the vase on the desk as he leapt up in excitement and disbelief. “Really?!” He exclaimed, a smile stretching on his lips. “Oh god, I’m so proud! My baby boy is growing up~!”

“That’s it, you’re going in the garbage disposal.” The high schooler threatened, grabbing his brush and combing through his messy strands, doing his best to have each side correctly divided.

“Shouto’s first friends, how sweet~.” Kero laughed to himself, his joyous mood not faulting even the slightest at the teen’s sharp glare. “Since when did you decide you want them as your friend?”

“Since one of them tried to cave in my ribs and face the other night.”

The bear snorted, a smirk curving his lips. “Nahh, I know you’re just a big softie under it all, kid.” He quickly sobered up and flew over to the teen, landing on the boy’s shoulder and watching as he pocketed his phone. “Where are you planning on going?”

Todoroki spun on his heels and started towards the door, stopping by the mirror once more to make sure he had his necklace looped around his neck. “To catch Fight.” He easily answered, pulling his bedroom door open and shut behind him.

That stunned the bear for all of two seconds, almost causing him to fall off in the shock before he was flying in the other’s face. “What?!” The bear yelled, hands flying in the air. “What do you mean ‘to catch Fly’, you’re injured!”

The boy pushed past and strutted down the hall, making his best attempts to hide the pain his sore side gave him. “Like you said, the cards are wreaking havoc, they need to be stopped, especially the Fight.”

Kero followed behind, mind racing as the bear tried to come up with reasons and scenarios that would cause the boy to stay home and rest under his sister’s aid. “What if you end up hurting yourself even more? What then?”

“I’m used to pain.” Todoroki muttered as he slipped on his shoes, pulling the back up and behind his heels. While pain had always been a major playing factor in his life, he couldn’t help but acknowledge that the Fight never pulled any punches, her attacks were stronger than what he’s faced on a good day. 

Kero zipped over to the door, pressing his small plush body against it. “I can’t in good conscience let you leave.” A frown found its place on the plush’s face as his eyes silently pleaded and begged for the teen to stay home. “It’s-“

“Seven people injured, Kero.” The boy reminded him, hip jutting out to the side as his brows furrowed. “If I don’t stop the Fight now then how many people will also become a casualty of their attacks.” Todoroki let his hand reach up and cover his scar, his eyes narrowing as his thoughts darkened. “How could I ever call myself a hero if I knowingly let that happen?”

The bear remained silent, like his mouth was taped shut. He could understand where the teen was coming from, but he didn’t have to shoulder the burden created by the cards all by himself. They were responsible for their own actions, but the teen didn’t see it that way. Perhaps it was guilt for letting them all loose or being unable to capture the card last night that was speaking, but the fault didn’t solely lay on him.

“Okay.” Kero whispered, flying over and plopping down on the teen’s shoulder. “Let’s go.”

* * *

“Who’s ready for a fresh cup of bodily harm.” Todoroki muttered with no intended target. “I know I am.”

“I don’t think this is the attitude that you should be having. Maybe we really should head back for today.” Kero whined, shaking his head before remembering to keep an eye out for the card.

“My attitude is just fine, thank you.” Todoroki insisted, hand curling around his pendant and fiddling with it as his nerves started to get the better of him. 

Todoroki was surprised that for a park deemed popular on the internet it seemed very quiet and baren. Was he at the right place? The surroundings looked familiar for what he had seen in the dark of night and the reports matched up exactly to the location and yet no one was here. A thought sparked in his mind that maybe people weren’t as enthusiastic about visiting the park as there was an attacker freely roaming the grounds. 

He rolled up his sleeve and quickly checked the time on his phone. He’d have to apologize to Fuyumi at length later about his inability to properly get groceries without getting pulled into a fist fight, but in his defence that has only happened a handful of times. Not just Clow Cards could be confident, boasting assholes.

What first alerted him of her presence was the clack of shoes against the pavement that wasn’t his own. His eyes were quickly drawn to the noise and he eyed her carefully as she met his eyes and raised her chin in challenge. So she did remember him, how lovely.

After Kero’s confirmation that nobody else was around Todoroki’s hand curled tightly around the charm, yanking the chain off from around his neck. “Key which hides the power of the dark, reveal your true nature to me.” He recited, the pendant glowing brightly within his hand. “I, Todoroki Shouto, command you under our contract, release!”

Taking that as the start of their fight, the card sprinted forward, body hunched closer to the ground as she ran, fists in front of her as she considered her next move. 

Todoroki held his ground, crossing and icing over his arms again. “Let’s go.” He muttered to himself, arms positioned in front of him. 

Fight stopped in her tracks as soon as she got in front of the bi haired teen, reeling her fist back before throwing it at his face, stopping just before it made it halfway before dropping to the ground and swiping her leg around to meet his.

Remember her tendency to fake attacks from their previous scuffle Todoroki was eyeing each movement with caution. He leapt above her attempt at sweeping him off his feet and threw a punch as soon as he landed on the ground. Unfortunately for him it didn’t land as she deflected it to the side.

The card bounced on her toes, throwing punch after punch at the teen, said boy either guiding them out of harm or letting them make contact with his ice coated forearm. Fight didn’t let up, forcing him to try and reapply a new layer as she broke them over and over again within a matter than seconds

Todoroki leapt backwards, shoving his hand into his pocket and spinning his staff around with his other. “Windy!” He called, pulling the card out and tossing it infront of him, swinging the top of the staff down to meet it. “Put some distance between us!”

The Windy morphed out of the card and flew towards Fight, wind blowing heavily along with her. The Fight was sent skidding across the ground, her body hunkered down as she tried to fight the breeze. Windy zipped back into her card as soon as her task was completed, hearing the teen’s murmur of thanks.

Todoroki formed another layer on his arms, shaking the hair out of his sight and glaring at his opponent. He needed a plan, a moment to freeze the Fight in her spot, but as it was right now she could dodge from her current distance or give him no time to form his ice with her repetitive attacks. Fire was out of the question, so that left the cards being his other crutch in this fight.

Fly wouldn’t be able to attack, only help him escape. Jump could help him keep away from her onslaught of strikes, but once he landed back on the ground he was back to his own devices. Wave could only manipulate water around them, but there wasn’t any source nearby. He didn’t know much about Windy’s -or really any of their- limits and skills but from what he could gather from Kero’s sleep talking, Windy was a strong card, you just needed to trust in her capabilities.

Taking a chance, Todoroki pulled out her card once more. “Windy!” He yelled, swinging his staff down as Fight charged him. “Bind her with your wind!”

The Windy flowed out of the card and wrapped herself around the approaching opponent, stopping the girl in her tracks. Fight struggled to get out of the binds but Windy was able to keep her contained in one spot.

Todoroki ran forward, shifting his foot as he activated his right side, freezing Fight up from her shoulders to the ground. The card still resisted, her strength causing the ice to crack, that wasn’t good. The teen in a moment of instinct spun on his foot before lifting his other to meet the side of her head, effectively knocking her out. He quickly raised his staff above his head, swinging it down at the unconscious card. “Return to your original form, CLOW CARD!”

As expected the card melted into a stream of whisps and spiraled around the head of his staff, slowly forming a red and golden card. Todoroki caught it before it could fall to the concrete, admiring their newest addition to their little group. 

“Good job!” Kero chirped, peering over his shoulder at the card’s face. The plush looked both impressed and excited for the teen, knowing the boy wouldn’t have stopped trying even if it caused him broken bones.

“Thanks.” The other replied, shoving Fight into his pocket along with the rest of his cards. He chipped off the rest of the ice hanging on his arms before heading down the path. “We can go grocery shopping again now, but this time no singing Hamilton or I will follow through with my promises.”

The plush landed on Todoroki’s shoulder, eagerly tapping at his cheek. “Hey hey hey, can we get some desserts too?”

“Why?” Todoroki groaned, trying to put his de-transformed staff back on its chain. “You didn’t do anything to help with Fight.”

The plush had the audacity to look shocked. “What do you mean! I played a big role!” He whined, huffing before turning away.

“If by ‘big role’ you mean daydreaming while Windy and I did all the work then yes, you played a _very_ big role.” Todoroki sighed before pinching the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath.

“But Shoutoooo.” The bear whined, letting out an undignified squawk as the teen roughly brushed him off his shoulder.

“It’s Todoroki.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, guess it’s back to school next chapter for Todoroki (｡’▽’｡)
> 
> Sorry for not replying to any comments, I’m not sure if I supposed to or not ú.ù;; but I really appreciate them so thank you owo!
> 
> Tumblr: blossom-2207  
> Insta: blossom.2207  
> Discord: https://discord.gg/KFCeyYC  
> Come join us on our discord server (｡’▽’｡)

**Author's Note:**

> I’ll probably need help writing this jandka but I’m gonna do my best (｡’▽’｡)
> 
> Tumblr: blossom-2207  
> Insta: blossom.2207  
> Discord: https://discord.gg/KFCeyYC  
> Come yell at me on my discord server ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ


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